marieinjapan

2007…“Those Were The Best Days Of My Life!”

2008-01-06T10:55:00.000+09:00

After spending one year in Japan, I have discovered many different things about myself, different cultures, Japanese people and the country itself. From now on, whenever I think of Japan, I know it will always bring a smile to my face because of all the adventures and wonderful memories I have. So thank you, Japan, for making 2007 the best year of my whole entire life and thank you to all the people I met along the way. It was the people who made the place so special to me. I will never forget the year of 2007. The people, the places, the culture, the country, the experience was one in a million. I LOVE JAPAN!!!

Tiger Bar

Me and Shinya

Karaoke

Beer Garden

Tina's Hawaiian Party

Kampai!

日本　ありがとうございました！
日本が大好きです！

The Last Supper

2008-01-06T10:49:00.000+09:00

This was our very last dinner together in Japan. It was a very sad occasion, however we were able to have our final dinner in our favourite restaurant (The Okonomiyaki Restaurant by Himeji Station) in good company. I chose to eat okonomiyaki with mochi, cheese, pork and bacon and it was absolutely DELICIOUS! I will never forget how good that tasted and when I go back to Himeji, I will make sure I go to that restaurant and eat my favourite thing! It was a really nice way to end our year in Japan and we were able to reminisce on all the good times we have had (and just about everyday there was a new adventure or story to tell!).

Tina, Steve, Richard and Makoto getting ready for their yummy meal.

Lauren and Kyosuke…かんぱい！

Me and Shinya…かんぱい！

The Heaps Good Showcase

2008-01-05T20:40:00.000+09:00

In our building, one of the new Americans who came in August was called Katie. Katie is a really good jazz dancer and she enjoys choreographing, and Tina and I enjoy dancing, so it was a good combination. Two or three times a week, Katie would teach us more and more of this dance that she had choreographed and after about five weeks, we had the dance down pat and ready to perform. We organised for everyone in the res (our building) to come and watch the “Heaps Good Showcase” which is now on Utube if anybody wants to watch it. We were really impressed with all the people who actually made the effort to come and watch us dance and we ended up doing the routine three times! We were absolutely exhausted by the end of it! It was a good experience to be taught a dance and to perform it in front of people and I hope that one day, I will have the opportunity of going to dance classes and doing some more of that kind of thing. If anything, it really gets your fitness going!

After the dance showcase, we went out to dinner at one of the restaurants that became our local called Café Muche. It is known for its ginormous meals and one meal could probably feed about four people if it was put into descent serves! It was good for us though because we were so hungry after having burnt off all that energy so that was exactly what we needed!

We then moved onto the pub where Avvy bought us some cowboy shots to celebrate our dance show and to farewell us. It was a good night and we were really proud of ourselves for performing the dance in front of our friends.

Sapporo Beer Museum

2008-01-05T20:37:00.000+09:00

On our last day in Sapporo, we went to the Sapporo Beer Museum which was really interesting. It was a really nice-looking building – especially because it was in the snow.

I found the advertisements interesting to look at because there was a display of every Sapporo Beer advertisement in history. It reminded me of the old Coke advertisements.

This is one of the newer ads of a good-looking Japanese guy advertising the beer.

This is one of the older ads of a young girl advertising the beer.

We got to have a drink at the bar which cost us 100 yen each ($1) so it definitely didn’t break our budget! I had mikan juice (mandarine juice) and Tina and Lauren tried some of the beer. We even got some free snacks to go with our drinks!

This is us doing a kampai (cheers) with our drinks.

Ski Trip

2008-01-05T20:29:00.000+09:00

We allocated two days to go skiing in Hokkaido. One of the days we went to a place called Kiroro and the other day we went to Rusutsu. It was really interesting because I hadn’t skied for a long time – not since I was about six or seven years old, so it was like starting all over again. I had a good outfit for skiing which covered every inch of my body, so I knew that being cold wouldn’t be an issue!

It was the most beautiful scenery seeing all the trees covered in snow and the roof tops of all the buildings also covered. As it is not the sort of thing that we get to see often here in Australia, I could appreciate the scenery a lot.

This is one of the ski slopes that we went down.

A cute little wooden log cottage in amongst the ski fields.

At the end of our skiing stint at Kiroro, Tina suggested that we make a snow man. It was pretty hard to do because the snow was so soft, that it was hard to make it stick together and mould into a shape. We did a pretty good job though in the end of creating a cute little snow man!

I must admit, my skiing skills were not even close to being anything more than a novice! I was so scared on those slopes and the ski slopes that were marked as being beginner slopes, felt like they should have been suited more to an advanced level! This is me looking like I actually knew what I was doing, but don't be fooled!!!

There was one particular slope that I went on with Tina which took AGES to get there by chairlift. It felt like we were in that chairlift for about fifteen minutes before we actually got to the top, so you could imagine how long and scary this course would have been! Well I was almost about to poo my pants when I saw how steep the slopes looked from my angle and I was so scared that I was going to lose control and end up going full pelt down this mountain! So I decided to take it easy and go as slow as possible. Well if I went any slower I would have been going backwards because I think I was going at a pace of about 2km/hr – no exaggeration!

So Tina was getting a little impatient by this stage waiting at the bottom of the slope for me that she rang Steve up and was giving him an up-to-date running commentary of what I was doing on that mountain! She even started taking photos of how ridiculous I looked! I started off trying to ski down and then I just got so scared that I stopped all together and didn’t know what to do. I was stuck! Tina suggested that I take off my skis and walk down, so I took them off and then was too scared to get up again, so I decided to lay down in the snow for about ten minutes thinking that I was going to die on the mountain and that was the end of my life!

Then I decided to bite the bullet and actually attempt going down, so I slowly slid down the rest of the mountain on my bottom, with my skis in each hand! I lost my dignity that day, but I still had my body in tact, so I was happy about that! It made for a good story to tell, if anything! Hehe

Sapporo

2008-01-05T20:14:00.001+09:00

Tina, Lauren and I made a special trip to Sapporo so that we could see the snow during the winter period in Japan. This was one thing we were looking forward to all year and were waiting for the right time for it to happen. Just before we left to go back to Australia, the snow in Hokkaido (Japan’s north island) was falling nicely for a perfect ski trip!

When we arrived in Sapporo, we were surprised to feel how cold it actually was as Honshu (the main island) isn't as cold as Hokkaido is, so it came as a bit of a shock to us. The roads were covered in ice right across from one side to the other. The snow was ploughed to the sidewalks so that the cars could get across the main roads without any hassles. It was just bizarre, but really cool to see because I haven’t seen snow for a very long time.

Hokkaido is actually known for its snow. It has some of the best snow in the whole entire world and it is called “powder snow”. There is a very good reason for its name because the snow is so soft that when you walk in it, your foot sinks to the very bottom – just like quick sand. It is magic! I also got really excited to see the snowflakes. I never thought that they would actually be in that star-shape that you see in cartoons and things like that, but each flake of snow is in a beautiful, perfectly executed shape of a star. It was just amazing!

As we were wondering around Sapporo, we stumbled across a semi-frozen lake surrounded by snow. It’s amazing how beautiful snow can make things look!

Another good tourist attraction in Sapporo is the “Tokei Dai” which means “Big Clock”. It looks really pretty at night time when all the lights are shining on it. It doesn’t take long for it to get dark in Sapporo and at around 4’o’clock, the sun starts to go down.

We then went to the city’s main park (Odori Park) to see the Christmas lights. They looked really pretty – especially because of the snow.

Later that night, we went to the most beautiful Italian restaurant where we ate pizza, tomato and cheese salad, lasagne and the best roast steak I have ever eaten! It was so tender and delicious! I definitely won’t forget that meal in a hurry!

Mt Hiromine Hike

2008-01-05T20:09:00.001+09:00

Thomas, Tina, Shinya and I decided to go on a bit of a hike up one of the local mountains in Himeji early one Sunday morning and geez, wasn’t that an adventure and a half! When I woke up that morning, I wasn’t expecting to go on such an adventure!

We rode our bikes to the base of the mountain and started our hike. Everything was going good, until Thomas and Tina decided it would be a good idea to take a short cut and get off the path. So there we were, bush bashing, trying to find our way through this mountain filled with trees and dead Autumn leaves on the ground. It was a tough slog because we had absolutely no idea where we were going, we had no compass and we were totally lost! On top of all that, I was busting to do a number two, but obviously there were no toilets around. Thankfully, Thomas had some toilet paper in case of emergencies such as these, so I was able to leave my little present on the mountain with the comfort of using toilet paper! The only thing was, I was too scared to go out of sight of everyone seeming as we were already lost, so I went behind a small bush, that was pretty much in sight of the others! They were disgusted with me, but I was at least happy that I hadn’t lost them too! I definitely felt relieved after I finished, anyhow!

This was when we got to the top of the mountain and you can see the susuki plants with the view of the city in the background.

This is Shinya, me, Tina and Thomas at the top of the mountain.

Me in the forest before we got lost.

After we finally found our way again, we were all so relieved. We were preparing for the worst and actually called some of our friends to make sure they knew to come and get us if we weren’t back before 5pm! Luckily, our trusty guide, Thomas, helped us to find our way again!

We were so hungry when we reached the bottom of the mountain where our bikes were, so we decided to make our way to the city to have a nice, yummy yaki niku lunch together. It started bucketing down with rain as we were riding along which made it impossible to keep dry, so we got to the restaurant in our trackies, looking like drowned rats and smelling just as bad! We didn’t care that much by that stage because all we wanted was a descent lunch. Well that is exactly what we got. A beautiful plate of yaki niku (grilled meat) that we got to grill on the BBQ ourselves. It was bliss! A nice way to end a funny adventure of a day!

Sega World

2008-01-05T20:07:00.000+09:00

It was a rainy day in Himeji and was way too cold to go out anywhere in the open, so Shinya suggest to take Tina, Kyosuke, Lauren and I to Sega World. Well I don't think we could have done anything better because this was just fantastic. It is like a games centre where you pay for every ten minutes you are in there, but you can go on anything you like within the centre for free. They had all sorts of things including pool tables, table tennis tables, car games, segway, massage chairs, tennis, squash courts…you name it, they had it! It was a great place to go to pass the time away with your friends and be entertained for a few hours. It was lots of fun!

The best part of this centre was the segway. They used these on Big Brother one of the years. You have to stand on it and control it by pushing and pulling the lever to move, change direction and alter the speed. It was hard to get used to at the start, but it was lots of fun nevertheless!

Farewell Party…Goodbye us ☹

2008-01-05T19:52:00.000+09:00

Tina, Steve, Lauren and I decided to have a small farewell dinner with the close friends we made whilst living in Japan. Firstly, we went out for dinner at the Blue Plate restaurant in the Miyuki Dori. This is equivalent to Rundle Mall in Adelaide. We loved going to this restaurant because for about $16, you could get a salad, soup, bread rolls, main, dessert and a coffee. It was good value for money and the service was really good and the food was really tasty. So this was our very last time eating at one of our favourite restaurants, Blue Plate.

After dinner, we went out for some karaoke because that is just what you do in Japan! It was lots of fun and we sang our little hearts out! This is Tina and I at the karaoke bar.

This is me, Lauren, Tina, Kyosuke and Makoto enjoying karaoke.

This is us doing the jazz hands!

Lauren, Hiromi, Fumiyo, Yoko, Tina, me and Shinya all feeling a little sentimental towards the end of karaoke.

Hiromi and Fumiyo gave us a little present each which was really nice of them. We were really sad to leave the karaoke bar after that because we knew that it would be the last time for a while before we could see them again. They were really good value and were always happy and cheerful when we saw them. I hope that we can always stay in touch with those girls because they were worth their weight in gold!

Shinya and I at the Tiger Bar.

Luminarie

2008-01-05T19:12:00.000+09:00

Just over ten years ago, there was a terrible Earthquake in Kobe which ruined the entire city, killed many people and left the rest homeless as their houses and properties were destroyed. It was a big mess to clean up, but Kobe was up and running again soon after. As a celebration of the rebuilding of the city after the earthquake, once a year, the people of Kobe put on a display of lights called Luminarie. This light display is just magnificent and has a whole heap of beautiful colours and looks outstanding. Thousands of people go to this light display every year around Christmas time to see the beautiful lights.

This is just so that I have proof of actually being there!

After walking through this huge tunnel of lights, you get to a mass of lights that are in the shape of a castle. It is so beautiful.

This is Lauren, Steve, me, Tina, Richard and Yoko posing in front of the castle lights.

My Last Day at the Elementary School

2008-01-05T16:32:00.000+09:00

All up, I had three elementary schools to teach at which were rotated once a week. I loved all of my elementary schools, but the teachers at this particular elementary school made me feel really welcome and special. One of the Grade Five teachers got her kids to make me 1000 paper cranes and they joined them all together so it looked like a colourful bunch of perfectly folded paper. It was so cool. They also gave me heaps of origami and little messages and letters. I will never forget how cute those kids are!

After my classes, the principal and I had a big chat in her office for about two hours about all the places I have been to. Then she gave me a present which was a shyuji set (Japanese calligraphy set) so that I could practise my shyuji. It was a really good present because I really enjoy doing calligraphy as I used to do it in Australia too. I also really like the look of Chinese characters (kanji) so it will be good for when I want to practise it in Australia. She gave me a bit of a lesson and I practised writing things like Himeji and Love in kanji.

These are some of the teachers I worked with at this school.

My Last Day at the Junior High School ☹

2008-01-05T16:27:00.000+09:00

Today marks my final day at my second Junior High School. Things were certainly starting to sink in that I was soon going to leave Japan which I was really sad about. I think that my second Junior High School was my favourite one because the kids were so friendly and always used to come up and have chats with me during their lunch breaks and after school. This particular school has a name for being a bit more of a challenging school, but I thought these kids had lots of character and they were so much fun.

This is a picture of me with my most favourite bunch of kids. Every lunch break, I would go out and talk to them about my most recent travelling adventures. They really liked hearing about the Koda Kumi Concert the best of all because they absolutely LOVE Koda Kumi. She is like the Delta Goodrem of Japan!

This is them doing the famous, trendy Japanese phrase that all young kids like to say: “Don Dake!” They always used to say it to me and make me say it too! It doesn’t really mean anything, but they just like to say it!

This is my favourite group of first grade kids Year 7's). I used to go and eat with them in their classroom occasionally and have chats with them about their favourite cartoon characters and they taught me how to do some origami, too!

These are the kids I taught. At this time, they were all writing me goodbye messages, so they were trying to think of what they could write in their cards. Some wrote a message in English and some wrote in Japanese, but it took me a little while longer to figure out what they wrote to me when I read the Japanese ones!

Enya-Kyo

2008-01-05T16:18:00.000+09:00

This was such a beautiful spot to see. There was a huge lake and we went at just the right time of day when the sun was just beginning to go down. What a beautiful view, don’t you think?

Just a little bit further down the path, was a big, red bridge that crossed the lake and it looked so cool that we just had to take a photo of it.

This time of year was just when all the Autumn leaves had fallen off the trees, so there were so many dead leaves on the ground. We had fun throwing them up in the air and letting them fall down back to the ground again. It also made for a good photo!

Tsumago

2008-01-05T16:09:00.001+09:00

This is another traditional Japanese village that has been here for many years. There are many Japanese restaurants and souvenir shops to look at.

This is the traditional Japanese restaurant that we went into for lunch. I ate some really nice Japanese food there which consisted of forest vegetables and it was so tasty and really healthy too! I also had miso mochi which is sticky rice with a miso flavour on the top. That became my new favourite food that day!

This is the traditional village street in Tsumago. It was lined with all the beautiful and traditional Japanese style houses.

The funniest part of the day was when we stumbled across this sign that said “bus porking”. I’m pretty sure they meant to say “bus parking”, but got it slightly wrong! It was pretty funny to see though!

Magome

2008-01-05T16:04:00.000+09:00

This is Magome. I went there with Shinya and we visited the little traditional Japanese village that was in the town. It was so cool walking along the road and seeing all the omiyage shops (souvenir shops). I bought some chopsticks and chopstick holders from there because I really wanted some nice ones.

Magome is in the country-side of Japan and it has a great view of the snow-topped mountains in the distance.

This is the Ona-taki. It means woman waterfall. There are two waterfalls here. One is called Ona-taki (woman waterfall) and the other is called Otoko-taki (man waterfall).
It was really pretty to just walk down and admire the beautiful surroundings.

Nagashima Spaland

2008-01-05T15:59:00.001+09:00

I went to visit Nagashima Spaland which is a really popular amusement park in Japan. It has the highest roller-coaster in Japan called the Steel Rider along with many other exciting and scary rides. These are just a few of them:

This is the Top Spin. Christina and I went on this ride and had a ball, but towards the end, I was getting a bit sick of being spun around so much. It was a fun ride, but I wouldn’t go on it again after eating lunch!

The Bob Kart ride was also a good ride that fits two people and the person sitting in the back can control the speed of the bob kart. It was lots of fun riding around the course.

This is the Steel Rider I was telling you about. The Steel Rider was my favourite ride for the day. It went so high in the sky and went really fast on its way down too. I wanted to go on this one again, but when we went back there, it was closed as the weather was too windy for it to be in operation. At least I got to go on it once!

The Cyclone is another ride that looks really impressive. It is a really long roller coaster ride, but it was a bit scary because it was so bumpy and it almost felt like it was going to go off the rails. Thank goodness, the ride ended before any real damage was done! Phew!

So as you can see, there were many cool rides to go on in Nagashima Spaland and I really enjoyed my time there.

Nagoya

2008-01-05T15:42:00.001+09:00

Nagoya is a really big city in Japan. It is not far from Himeji, so it is pretty accessible to get there by shinkansen (bullet train). There were lots of things to do in Nagoya city such as taking photos of all the massive buildings:

Going to a Noh production (Noh is traditional Japanese theatre). When I went there, the actors were amateur so it was free to enter. It was a good experience nevertheless, to go and watch a Noh production.

This temple is really special in Nagoya.

It is called the Osu Kannon Temple and it holds hundreds of golden kannon figures standing approximately 50 centimetres tall. There are also statues of Gods amongst them which represent all the different years of birth. I was really excited to go to this temple because I wanted to see all the beautiful kannons.

This is the God that represents my year of birth.

I visited the Atsuta Jinja Shrine which is one of the three most famous and well-known shrines in Japan. Apparently, there is a special hidden sword within the grounds of this shrine and the actual whereabouts of the sword is unknown. I looked, but I couldn’t find it either! While we were in the shrine, we saw a wedding which was pretty interesting. I like watching Japanese traditional weddings because I like their outfits.

Later that night, we were all starving, so we decided to go to a restaurant called “The Outback”, but it was so popular and so busy that we had to wait for two hours just to get a seat! We were pretty agitated by that stage, but when we finally got our meal, we were impressed. I ordered a huge plate of ribs that filled my tummy completely.

After our meal, the staff asked if I was leaving the country soon and it just so happened that I was.

So, they gave us free icecream with yummy chocolate topping and they gave everyone at our table a tambourine and the whole restaurant sang a farewell song to me! It was the most bizarre experience I have ever had in a restaurant, but it was fun, anyway. So all in all, it was worth the wait!

After dinner, we went and saw the Christmas lights at Nagoya Station. They were so pretty and there were so many families and friends there all doing the same thing as us: taking photos of each other! It was a really nice way to end the night.

On the way to school

2008-01-05T15:40:00.003+09:00

Everyday on the way to school, I ride down a really narrow road that can barely fit one car through and as I turn the corner, I see a sign that says, “Marie”. I thought it was worth blogging because nobody has a name called Marie in Japan, so it was pretty uncanny to see it. I always wanted to take a photo of it and on my last day at the school, I finally took a photo!

Last Day at Shirahama

2008-01-05T15:38:00.000+09:00

Today marks the final day at my other elementary school. I really enjoyed going to this school because the kids were always so ‘genki’ (cheerful and happy) and they were always excited to see me and learn English. I had lots of fun teaching these kids and I will miss them a lot.

I also really like the teachers at this school too. They were really welcoming to me and always made the effort to talk to me and get to know me better. This is me with two of the teachers at the school. When I finished my lessons for the day, I sat there with them for a couple of hours talking about the things I have done in Japan and showing them my photos. It was a really nice way to end the day.

Also, one of the classes had prepared a huge present for me to take home. Each student made lots of origami and put it in a big box and a big bag. A couple of other students also made me a poster with little kinoko (mushrooms) on it made of origami which I will frame and stick on my wall as a reminder of the fun times I had at that school.

Nabe at Makoto’s

2008-01-05T15:33:00.001+09:00

Makoto invited a group of people from our apartment building to have nabe for dinner at his place the other night, which we gratefully accepted. I had never tried nabe before, so it was an interesting experience. Nabe is similar to sukiyaki, but has a slightly different taste. It was delicious all the same, though and very filling!

Makoto says that he never cooks for people, but he proved himself that night with his excellent cooking skills that I was very impressed with! It was a fun night all in all, with delicious food and good company!

Golden Himeji Castle

2008-01-05T15:31:00.000+09:00

As I was riding home from school one day, I took a glance at the Himeji Castle (because I love looking at it) and saw that the sun was shining straight onto it so that it looked golden. It looked so cool that I had to take a photo of it. As I was taking the photo, a huge flock of birds flew past the castle for added effect. It was like they knew that I was about to take a photo and they wanted to pose in front of it to make it look even better! So here you have it, the Himeji Castle looking golden!

Yoyogi Koen

2008-01-05T15:26:00.001+09:00

The next day after the Koda Kumi concert, Tina, Lauren, Shinya and I went to Yoyogi Koen. It was a great day to go because the weather was really good and everyone was at the park doing their own thing. The park was full of people having picnics, playing dodge ball, juggling, riding their BMX’s, dancing, playing music, running, playing with their light sabers and all sorts of things! It was really good to watch everybody having fun doing something they enjoy and I like the idea of having such a well-utilised park where everyone can be active and keep fit. If I lived in Tokyo, I would go to Yoyogi Koen every weekend!

This is me and Shinya hanging from the momiji tree.

Tina and I hanging from the momiji tree.

The juggling guys.

As we were leaving, we also saw a group of people who looked like they had just come out of the movie ‘Grease’ with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John!

I have seen them before when I went to Yoyogi Koen another time, so I think they regularly come to this park. They are so funny because they all have really big hair and huge tattoos all over their backs and they crank the old 60’s tunes and start dancing and playing their air guitars! They also have a Chevrolet which they park beside them which is bright pink! It was really interesting to watch them get into their dancing and there was a huge crowd of people surrounding them (both foreigners and Japanese people) all wanting to see and take pictures of them. I think that they like to pose fo the photos, too! They were really fun to watch!

Koda Kumi Concert

2008-01-05T15:22:00.000+09:00

On the weekend, Tina, Lauren, Steve, Shinya and I all went to the Koda Kumi concert which was held at the Tokyo Dome.

It was a great concert and Koda Kumi was just amazing. She was so beautiful and such a great singer and the actual performance was really entertaining. I had a great time at the concert watching the dancing and listening to the singing. I am so glad that we were able to get tickets to the concert. It was good to be able to experience a concert in Japan.

Just before the concert, Tina, Shinya and I decided to go on this really BIG roller coaster.

The fastest speed goes 130km/hr. Pretty fast, huh? Well it was heaps of fun going on that roller coaster and I got a really good rush from it. The funniest part was seeing all the girls dressed up in their high heeled shoes and short skirts with caked on make up just to ride on the roller coaster! It was very interesting!

We decided to buy Koda Kumi t-shirts to wear during the concert too.

I am really glad I bought one because the t-shirts looked really cool and I felt like I was apart of it all. I think we were the only foreigners at the concert that night, which was also pretty funny!

Last Day at Itohiki

2008-01-05T15:15:00.000+09:00

Today was my last day at one of my elementary schools. I really like this particular school because they invited me to their enkei (teacher’s party) and we went away together to Matsuyama which is in another island of Japan. The teachers are really friendly and one of the teachers at that school showed me around Japan and was really friendly and helpful to me.

On the last day, I went outside to play with the kids and I saw four little kids trying to turn this big rope.

Well they were having a little bit of trouble so I went and helped them and they ended up being really good skippers! These are the kids that I was playing with on my last day. They were so cute!

Just before I was about to leave, Mayumi (one of the teachers I made friends with) asked me to watch the Grade 6's perform their song for their big performance. They were just amazing and they were all in time and sounded fantastic! They could even play musical instruments, too! I was really impressed!

This is the principal of the elementary school I was at.

She was always so nice and kind to me and always made the effort to talk to me and come and join in on some of the classes I taught in.

This is the deputy principal who was also really nice.

One time I missed the bus and the next bus didn’t come for another hour, so he offered to drive me to the station. He also gave me a Beetles CD and a Nelly CD too!

Kyoto – Momiji Viewing

2008-01-05T14:59:00.000+09:00

Recently, Tina and I went on a special trip to Kyoto to see the momiji (Autumn leaves).

It was the best day I have had for a long time because the scenery was absolutely beautiful. We couldn’t have picked a better time to go because this week is the most beautiful time of year to see momiji. One week later and it would have been too late. We were really lucky to have been able to witness such beauty.

We visited some temples and shrines we hadn’t yet been to and everywhere we went, the momiji was just spectacular.

The first place we went to was the San-ju-san-Gen-do. This is a particularly unique temple because inside the temple contains one thousand golden statues called Cannons. They are all lined up in perfect lines and they look absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures, but just imagine one thousand golden statues of Gods lined up in perfect rows and columns. I am so glad that we got to see it. I bought a book that contained many different pictures of the statues so that I could have as a keepsake to remind me of the view I got from inside the temple.

This picture is from outside the temple. You can see how big it actually is because it has to be to fit in so many statues! I think the momiji look really beautiful around it too.

After going to the San-ju-san-gen-do Temple, Tina and I went to the park to eat lunch.
We packed our own ham, cheese and avocado sandwiches and sat and ate them under the momiji trees. It was really nice. We took a few photos of ourselves in the park because the view was so spectacular.

We visited the Ginkakuji Temple which was also really beautiful.

Many people believe that the Kinkakuji Temple is more beautiful, and I think that the actual building of Kinkakuji is actually more spectacular to look at, however the landscape surrounding the Ginkakuji Temple during the Autumn period when all the Autumn leaves were out was just amazing!

The Ginkakuji Temple.

Nearby, there was a fantastic display of sand which was perfectly raked and positioned in a smooth, round mound. Surrounding the mound was another area of sand which was also perfectly raked to create an interesting pattern. I have no idea how they were able to create such a perfect mound of sand, but it was really cool to look at.

Moving on from the Ginkakuji Temple, we then found ourselves walking along the Philosopher’s Trail which is a very famous trail that contains various temples you can visit on the way.

It was so beautiful and there are many houses in this area. If I was going to buy a house anywhere in Japan, I would buy one near here because the view is just picturesque. Although, I think that this side of Kyoto would probably be one of the more expensive areas.

At the end of the Philosopher’s Trail, was a temple called Eikando.

This temple was recommended to us by our friend, Yoko because it is so beautiful to see during Autumn. Well she was absolutely right because Tina and I were just blown away by the view presented before us. There was one section where many golden-coloured leaves had fallen off the trees causing the ground to appear golden in colour. We took so many pictures of this!

Tina and I at the Eikando Temple.

The pond in the Eikando Temple.

Final Aerobics Showcase

2008-01-05T13:34:00.000+09:00

It is so sad that everything is coming to an end here in Japan.

This entry marks the end of our aerobics classes in Himeji, Japan. This night was our last night for Tina and I to take aerobics classes for the local community in Shinzaike. We made the most of it though because I tried my very best in the last one. Everyone else in the class also worked their hardest this time round too. This is everyone who attended the final aerobics class for the year. There were around thirty people who showed up which was pretty impressive. As each week passed, more and more people started coming to the classes and in the end, there were so many and it became really successful!

At the end of the session, the locals at Shinzaike were kind enough to put on a bit of a spread for us so we got to eat cake and chocolate after the class. One of the ladies even made us a special cake with Tina’s and my name on it which we ate that night after dinner and it was DELICIOUS!

This is one of the little girls who used to enjoy coming to the classes. She would participate in the entire class without taking a rest and she absolutely loved it! Her mum even told us that she would always look forward to coming to the classes and she always asked her mum if it was aerobics day that day.

This is another little girl who started coming to classes towards the end and she was also really good at the classes. It was so cute to watch them do all the moves with everyone else in the class too!

After the spread at the community centre, Lauren was nice enough to put on a yummy curry dinner for a few of us regulars. From the back, this is Tina, Steve N., Richard, Thomas, Steve H., me, Lauren, Kyosuke and Makoto. I would just like to say thank you to all the people who supported our classes because without everyone’s support, it wouldn’t have been as successful.

Happy Birthday Shinya!

2008-01-04T17:20:00.000+09:00

It was Shinya’s birthday on the weekend. For his birthday, we went to a place called Kasai which is near Himeji City. We went to his grandparents house as they have a traditional Japanese-style home in the countryside with a beautiful Japanese-style garden and many amazing-looking ornaments in their house. I got to eat my favourite biscuit which is made in Hokkaido and contains two biscuit bases with rum and raisen flavoured cream in the centre. I can’t wait to go to Hokkaido in December because I will be eating those biscuits for breakfast, lunch and tea!

After that, Shinya’s uncle took us hiking up this mountain. Shinya’s uncle is so fit because his hobby is hiking up mountains so almost every weekend, he will go hiking. He was our guide for hiking on this particular mountain and he could walk so fast up the hill that it was a bit of a struggle to catch up to him! I hope that one day, I have the opportunity to climb mountains every weekend too. It is so much fun and very rewarding when you actually reach the top. It is also great to be surrounded by nature.

At this time of year, the mountain that we climbed was covered in Autumn maple leaves. It was so beautiful. At some parts, it was pretty steep and I felt my little heart beating really fast, but it was worth all the exercise to get such a beautiful view.

This is me on the way up the mountain just beside the edge of the cliff.

At one stage, we had to cross a bridge.

The bridge was really narrow and wobbly and pretty scary to walk across because it felt like it was going to break any second! Thankfully, we managed to cross it safely! This is a picture of Shinya’s younger cousin, me and Shinya feeling relieved just after we crossed the bridge.

After crossing the bridge, we had to climb a really steep section which had chains in case you needed help pulling yourself up.

It wasn't really so bad though, but it was fun climbing it. This is a picture of Shinya’s cousin and uncle climbing the steep section.

Once we did the hard yards, we got to this pretty section of the mountain that had many red leaves and a beautiful little pond. We sat there and drank a coffee and I got to eat another one of those yummy biscuits from Hokkaido!

This is the silhouette that the momiji made against the sun.

After our hike, we all went to a really beautiful place with a lake and log cabins where you could actually stay for a weekend.

I wish I had enough time here in Japan so that I could go back there and stay for a few days. There are apparently many hiking trails you can go on too which is really nice. We ate lunch there and I had a yummy beef curry and then spent the rest of the time outside taking photos of the scenery.

I was so excited that I was in such a beautiful place that I just had to do a cartwheel!

This is the view that we got while we were eating lunch.

Okayama Countryside

2008-01-04T17:19:00.003+09:00

After visiting Tottori, we drove to another place in the Okayama Prefecture which had a famous onsen (hot spring). In most onsens in Japan, the men and women are separated and everyone is expected to be naked. In fact, you actually aren’t allowed to wear any bathers or clothes at all.

Due to this fact, Tina and Lauren feel shy about entering onsens. I actually like them a lot and I don’t mind that you have to be naked because the men and women are separated and it is also quite liberating. In this particular onsen that we visited, the men and women were together, but Shinya assured us that we could wear our bathers in the water, so this didn’t seem as daunting to us. Anyway, we got to the place and found that the onsen was in an open space for everyone to see and the only people that were in there were naked men! There was one woman in there who had a towel wrapped around her, but the rest of them were men! We were so embarrassed that we decided against going in the onsen. Instead, we ended up having a foot spa so the only thing we had to take off were our shoes and socks! That wasn’t so bad!

It was a beautiful area nevertheless, and there was a river flowing through the town encompassed by a huge cliff face covered with momiji trees. I’m glad we got to see such a beautiful place – even though we didn’t end up swimming with the naked men!

The Sand Dunes of Tottori

2008-01-04T17:14:00.005+09:00

On one of the days during our long weekend, we visited a place called Tottori which is north of Himeji. Tottori is famous for its sand dunes and I can see why so many people go to look at them. They were just amazing and I have never seen a beach with sand dunes like this before.

This is Steve, Tina, Lauren and I about to face the challenge of going up the sand dunes – they were really, REALLY steep!

Why not take up the opportunity of going parachuting off of the peak of the sand dunes? This is what some of the people were doing while we were here.

This is me, Shinya and Tina about to climb the steepest section of the sand dunes.

It was pretty hard, but worth the challenge! Besides, I needed the exercise!

This is Tottori’s beautiful beach.

Apparently it is a really good place to go swimming in the summer time, but this time of year, it is a little too cold to go swimming. Although, in hindsight, we probably could have gone because it was quite a nice, sunny day and the water wasn’t really that cold.

The best part of the sand dunes, was running down them.

It was like running down a really steep, grassy hill, except the surface was sand so when you ran down it, your feet would sink into the sand with every step you took. Tina and Shinya ran down the hill with no problems, but I was a little more hesitant and worried about my knees. As a result, I ended up running down the hill like a girl, in fact, I was prancing more than running, but it was fun all the same!

Okayama Bike Hike

2008-01-04T17:06:00.000+09:00

For the long weekend just been, instead of going away, we thought we would do some day trips to various places we haven’t yet been to, so we hired a car and went to the most amazing places!

The first place we went to was the countryside of Okayama to do a bike hike. There are some bikes that you can hire and there is a special bike path that you can follow which takes you to various temples and shrines. It was perfect weather for a bike hike as the sun was up and the skies were blue. We had a great day riding around and stopped for lunch at a five-story pagoda which was surrounded by momiji (red Autumn leaves). It was just beautiful. We had a little picnic on the grass with our ham sandwiches and Tim Tams and took many photos of the pagoda and the momiji. It was really relaxing.

This is what the countryside looked like while we were riding on our bikes.

This is Lauren and I standing in front of the pagoda.

Shinya and I posing in front of the momiji.

Steve, Tina and I enjoying the momiji.

These are some of the things we rode past on our bike hike:

A cute little cottage house in the countryside.

Gravestones, berries and a beautiful yellow-leaf tree.

This was the entrance to one of the temples we visited.

…and of course, the best thing about Autumn…Momiji!

Thanks Giving Dinner

2008-01-04T16:58:00.000+09:00

As an Australian, I have never experienced or celebrated Thanks Giving as it is an American custom.
However this year, at one of our favourite local restaurants called Blue Plate, they organised the BEST Thanksgiving dinner I have ever had! I haven’t eaten roast turkey for an entire year, but this roast turkey was really something! It was so delicious, and all the other food that went along with it was also equally delicious. I ate so much that night that I probably didn’t have to eat anything for a whole week! The food was great, the company was great and it was a really fun night overall. I had been looking forward to this dinner since we had booked it and it was everything I had expected plus more!

My Thanksgiving plate:

Thanksgiving turkey:

日本語　(Nihongo)

2008-01-04T16:36:00.000+09:00

In case you were wondering, “Nihongo” means Japanese. This entry marks the end of my Nihongo lessons at the Egret Centre in Himeji City. It is a very sad time for me because every week I would really look forward to going to my lessons and learning a new grammar point or learning new words. I was probably the biggest square out of everyone in the entire class because I studied diligently and with great enthusiasm everyday in my spare time at school and I really loved it when the teacher would ask me a question in class! Tina and Lauren always made fun of me because they thought I was a nerd in the class, but I didn’t care because I loved it! So now I feel a little sad because I won’t be going to these classes anymore which were a huge help to my Japanese study throughout the year. Without these classes, I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as far as I did. I just wish I were able to continue them.

I took a photo of our Japanese class which consisted of me, Tina, Lauren, Steve H. and Taube. There were a few others which were apart of our class, but we were the most regular students. Also in the photo is our lovely sensei. Her name is Syuto Sensei. She was such a great teacher and always so patient and funny. She always made the lessons fun for us and I will never forget her!

Himeji Castle in Autumn

2007-11-21T21:19:00.000+09:00

On my way home from school the other day, I decided to organise myself and make sure that I didn’t miss out on taking any photos of the beautiful Autumn leaves surrounding the castle.

The traditional Japanese carp with the Himeji Castle in the distance.

Himeji Castle against the red maple leaves of Autumn.

The Himeji Castle moat. Check out the reflection of the leaves in the water…beautiful!

Himeji Gardens

2007-11-21T18:37:00.001+09:00

It has taken us nearly the entire year to actually get our buts into gear and go to the Himeji Gardens.

Well it was an absolutely freezing cold day and I didn’t have nearly enough layers on, so I was on the edge of getting frost bite (not really, but it sounded good!). The garden itself was so beautiful nevertheless, due to the fact that Autumn leaves covered all the trees and the ground below. It was absolute magic!

Red berries.

Purple berries.

The four of us.

This is my favourite photo of the momiji leaves growing out of the tree trunk.

Himeji Castle with Autumn leaves surrounding it.

Tina’s Hawaiian Birthday Party

2007-11-21T18:23:00.000+09:00

Happy Birthday Tina!

It was Tina’s birthday on the weekend and for her birthday party, she decided to have a Hawaiian cocktail party.

Lauren was kind enough to organise for her mum to go Cheap and Chips and find grass skirts, lais and shell bras for the three of us. So we had our costume all set and they looked awesome!

The next best costume at the party was Greg’s costume. He was dressed in a wetsuit and snorkel and flippers and he even wore them all night! I was really impressed with his outfit!

We made so many nice cocktails including Pina Coladas, Midori Illusions, Bailey’s chocolate, Bounty and so many more! They all tasted so good and everyone enjoyed drinking the cocktails and making their own concoctions.

What is a party without the limbo? Well that’s what I thought anyway, so Steve Harvey and I decided to start it up using the broom. A few of us joined in and it was heaps of fun seeing who would win overall. It was a toss up between Katie and Adam, but they both did really well considering how low the bar actually got!

Makoto doing the limbo.

Me doing the limbo.

Lauren and I felt a little self conscious in our outfits at one stage because everyone else was all covered up and we had our bellies showing, so we decided to do a Steve Urkle and pull our skirts up to our shell bras for added effect. What do you think? Good look?

This is Greg, Steve N, Steve H, me, Tina, Lauren and Thomas.

Hiromi and Fumiyo (the two cutest and happiest Japanese girls I have ever met!)

At the end of the night, we all went out to the karaoke bar to practise our singing! Well it did absolutely nothing for my voice, but I did enjoy myself!

Thanks for organising a really cool cocktail party, Tini!

Silly me take two

2007-11-21T18:21:00.002+09:00

OK. So this was actually the night of Tina’s Hawaiian birthday party. We were all merry, drinking cocktails and feeing happy and relaxed. Then all of a sudden, the police knocked on the door. They were asking for me! I was really worried at this stage (well I wasn’t really because I had had a few drinks and wasn’t caring much about anything by then!) I went to converse with the police (mind you I was wearing a grass skirt, shell bra and lais and had a cocktail in my hand at the time. Can you imagine what this looked like? Respectable police dressed in their full uniform and me dressed as a Hawaiian hula girl?) Anyway, they had actually found my purse and came to the apartment building to give it back to me – money, cash card and everything was still inside! I couldn’t believe my luck! I was so happy I felt like giving the police officer a huge kiss and hug for finding my purse, but I actually was on my best behaviour and restrained myself at the time!

In the meantime, nosey Tina was in the background listening to everything and just like a proud parent, she wanted to take a photo of me with the police officers and my newly-found purse! It was so embarrassing because the police officer didn't want to have a bar of it. Well Tina just wouldn’t listen so she took the photo anyway, and this was what eventuated! It was pretty funny now, looking back, but I’m just glad that my purse found its way back to me again! ☺

Silly me

2007-11-21T18:21:00.001+09:00

I’m sure that many people can vouch for what I am about to say…I do the dumbest things sometimes! Well today was no exception! I went shopping with Tina and Lauren because Tina had a voucher to spend in one of the shopping complexes. So we had a fun day trying on clothes and eating lunch. I, for once in my life, didn’t buy anything, but enjoyed shopping with Tina and Lauren and seeing what clothes they were trying on. Anyway, towards the end of the day, Tina was a few yen short so she wanted me to lend her some change. I reached into my bag for my purse to find that it wasn’t there. I had no idea where I had put it because I hadn’t used it all day. I didn’t take it out of my bag all day.

We retraced our steps and asked all the shops we had been in if they had see my purse, but there was no such luck. It was gone.

I was really annoyed and upset because I had equivalent to $100 in my purse, plus my cash card and my foreign registration card. It was a real hassle not to have it. So I went to the police station to report my missing purse. It was a bit embarrassing going in there because as soon as I walked in the door, there were about seven police officers sitting behind a long desk (it was like I was being interviewed or something!) and they were all just silent and staring at me. Well I explained as best as I could (in really poor, broken Japanese) that I had lost my purse. I had to answer a few of their questions and then I left. I cancelled my cash card and went home.

When I got home, I still had NO idea how I had lost my purse.

…to be continued…

Radio Stars

2007-11-21T18:18:00.001+09:00

At the Nada Kenka Matsuri (Nada Fight Festival), we sat with a kind man who one of Tina’s collegues knows from work. We also met his wife that day and she happened to be a radio announcer for Genki FM (a local radio station in Himeji). She asked us if we would be free one Saturday morning to help her with her radio announcing. We agreed to this and set a date.

So this was where it all began…

Tina, Lauren and I went to the radio station’s headquarters and had no idea what to expect.

We thought we might have to answer some questions in Japanese about our life in Japan and we were getting worried that we might not understand what they were saying to us. Anyway, it turned out that they wanted us to be the voice over that introduces each show and encourages people to listen to the station. So every day, our voices will be played on the radio to introduce the morning show. We had to go into a little booth and put some headphones on and read the script that was in front of us. It was really funny because pretty much every time we said something, the guy that was recording us would start cracking up laughing, so then of course, we would start laughing too! He was trying get us to sound cooler, funnier, happier and friendlier. In the end, I felt like an absolute idiot, but it was fun!

So now, we am officially Genki FM’s voice-over for the morning show!

紅葉　（もみじ　Momiji)

2007-11-21T18:12:00.000+09:00

I love momiji! Momiji is the red maple leaves of Autumn. During our trip to Kyoto, we saw many red leaves on the trees. It was such a beautiful sight. Autumn is such a beautiful season in Japan because almost all the leaves turn red at the same time so the mountains look red from a distance.

We visited a few temples in Kyoto while we were there and enjoyed watching the maple leaves. This is a photo of me with the momiji behind me.

This photo is just near Kyomizu Temple and all the leaves were just starting to turn red.

Tina and Lauren in front of the momiji.

Me and Shinya in front of the momiji.

Kyoto – Hozugawa River Rafting Experience

2007-11-20T22:39:00.000+09:00

Just recently, Tina, Lauren, Shinya and I went on a day trip to Kyoto to do a rafting tour in a traditional rafting boat down the Hozugawa River.

It was such a great experience because we got to see the momiji (maple leaves) during the Autumn season when they look their best.

The boat ride was very relaxing and it was so beautiful to see all the leaves turning red during the Autumn season.

The boat ride went for about two hours and it was really peaceful. Apparently, when the water levels are high, it can be very dangerous as the river flows very quickly and it is easy to capsize. Thankfully, the water levels were low when we went and it was a beautiful day, so we had nothing to worry about!

One of the men who was helping to steer the boat looked a lot like Morgan Freeman. If Morgan Freeman was Japanese, that is exactly how he would have looked! What do you think?

During the boat ride, there were other boats that were like small delis where you could buy food. It was such a novelty, that we all shared some chips and Lauren bought some squid.

This is the traditional Japanese boat that we travelled in as we were going along the river.

Japanese Wedding

2007-11-20T22:37:00.000+09:00

On the weekend, we were invited to a Japanese wedding. The lady who got married was one of Tina’s students at Shogai University. She knew how much Tina loves the Japanese culture and she thought it would be nice to invite Tina to her wedding. Well we all got invited (all, meaning Tina, Steve, Lauren and I). So we got to see the traditional ceremony, the traditional outfits and we even got to have our photo taken with the bride and groom and their family and friends.

This is the bride and groom during the ceremony.

This is the bride walking down the aisle.

This is the bride and groom ringing the bell after they got married.

Nara with Tess, Danny, Lauren and her family

2007-11-20T22:31:00.000+09:00

Lauren’s dad and his partner were in Japan at the same time as Tessa and Danny were, so I decided to take a day off of work and go with Lauren and her dad to Nara with Tess and Danny. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining and warm. We saw some really cool temples and shrines in our travels. We decided to hire bikes so that we could get around and see things quicker as we only had one day to see Nara. We visited kofukuji and saw the five-story pegoda and the beautiful surroundings of the temple.

We also went to Kasuga Shrine which is one of the most beautiful-looking shrines in the whole of Japan. It is an orange building and has so many interesting decorations. These are lanterns hanging from the ceiling in Kasuga Shrine.

On our way to the shrine, we spotted a deer hiding amongst the stone lanterns. It looked so cute with its little head popping out that I just had to take a picture. In case you didn’t know, Nara is famous for deer.

There are hundreds and hundreds of deer roaming around freely in the town. They are not caged, but they just walk around wherever they like. They are so used to people that you can pat them and feed them and the deer are really friendly and especially good with children. This time, the male deer had their antlers cut off because it is the mating season for the deer so they can be dangerous if they still have their antlers. The last time I went to Nara, all the male deer still had their antlers, so it was a bit of a shock to see them without their antlers the second time around.

This is Lauren, Lauren’s dad and Lainey at one of the temples we went to.

The last temple we visited was of course, Todaiji.

It is the largest wooden structure in the world and my favourite temple in the whole of Japan. Inside the temple is the famous Daibutsu (a huge statue of a buddha which stands approximately fifteen metres high). I love looking at this statue because it is so large and amazing to look at. In this picture, you can see how big it is if you compare the statue to the people at the bottom.

In the temple, there is a wooden pole that has a hole through it that is the exact same size as the buddha’s nostril. If you can fit through it, you receive good luck.

So this is my second attempt at fitting through the buddha’s nostril (I did it once before when I went to Nara with Aleysha). It was surprisingly easier the second time around.

Osaka with Tessa and Danny

2007-11-20T22:23:00.001+09:00

I went to Osaka for a day trip with Tessa, Danny and Shinya.

It was lots of fun showing them around and Tess and Danny really liked what they saw. We firstly went to Yodabashi so that Tess and Danny could buy a new camera and then we went to Namba which is one of the most happening places in Osaka and apart from Tokyo, it is one of the most busy places in the whole of Japan. It has a great nightlife and many different restaurants to choose from. So we spent lots of time walking down the streets looking at the people and all the beautiful neon lights.

I took them to this shrine which is in the middle of all the busy streets, but surprisingly, this particular part is very quiet and peaceful. This time, there were many priests in the shrine having a special ceremony. It was really interesting so we stayed and watched for a little while before moving on.

It was getting late, so we decided to have dinner at an Izakaya which was new so none of us had ever been there. It turned out to be the most delicious meal ever! We weren’t that hungry because we had just eaten okonomiyaki for lunch that day, but we had a nice light meal for dinner.

While we were eating our dinner, there was a group of young university students at the table next to us (there were five girls and five guys).

It was really funny because straight away we knew what they were doing. They were doing gokon. Gokon is like a dating idea where five girls and five guys get together and have a date and decide which person they like the best to possibly pursue a relationship with. We enjoyed watching them. Then they started playing a game and they could see that we were all watching so they asked if we wanted to join in. So we were sitting in this restaurant, minding our own business and then all of a sudden, we found ourselves playing this game with a group of people doing a gokon! It was hilarious, but really cool at the same time because I had always wanted to be apart of a gokon and that was my opportunity! It was lots of fun and we ended up taking a picture of them all because they were so friendly.

Kobe with Tess and Danny

2007-11-20T22:16:00.000+09:00

During Tess and Danny’s stay in Japan, I decided to take them to Kobe. We went to many different places which they really enjoyed including China Town, Harborland and a really good yaki niku (grilled meat) restaurant.

In China Town, we got to have my most favourite Chinese sweet called goma dango.

It is a little ball covered in sesame seeds and inside it has sticky rice and bean paste. It tastes really good warm and every time I go to China Town I eat one! Tessa and Danny enjoyed walking down the China Town street lined with many Chinese restaurants and souvenir shops.

Next was Harborland. We walked around and had a look at the shops in the area and then we went on the ferris wheel. It was a really nice view – especially because we got to sit in the glass carriage so we could see everything! This is the beautiful view we had.

Tess and Danny about to ride on the ferris wheel.

On our way to the yaki niku restaurant, we saw this cute little dog which had a hat on and was just making his way down the street with his master. He was so cute that I just had to take a photo with him!

At the yaki niku restaurant, this was the first time I was able to try Kobe beef.

Kobe beef is so famous and expensive because it is such good quality meat. The farmers massage the cows every day to make the meat soft and they also feed them beer so that their muscles are relaxed. These cows get treated like kings...and then we eat them! I have never tried beef that tasted so soft and delicious before. It just melted in my mouth and I almost didn’t even have to chew it! Tess and Danny really loved the taste of it too!

Halloween

2007-11-20T22:07:00.000+09:00

As an Australian, I have hardly ever celebrated Halloween, but due to the fact that there are many Americans who live in our building, we were able to celebrate Halloween and get all dressed up for it!

The night before our Halloween party, Tina, Tessa, Danny and I all helped to cut a pumpkin to make it look scary and cool. Danny did most of the work, but the finished product looked amazing! This was our jacko-lantern.

This is me, Tina, Tess and Danny trying to look scary with our jacko-lantern.

It was so much fun dressing up for Halloween.

I dressed up as a pumpkin witch, Tina dressed up as a cat and Lauren dressed up as Cleopatra. Everyone had really cool costumes and it was fun to have a look at how everyone else dressed up.

This is a witch (Tomi), a belly dancer (Eiko), a school girl (Katie) and a pumpkin girl (Sakura).

Every year, all the residence in our building hold a Halloween party for the local kids in the community. We provided fun games for the kids to play and encouraged them to dress up so that they could get into the spirit of Halloween. They all looked so cute dressed up in their costumes! They had a good time playing the games we organised and spending time with their friends.

After the kids’ Halloween party, we had a party of our own. That way, we could show all our friends our cool costumes!

Tess the pirate and Danny the Aussie.

Me (a pumpkin witch) and Shinya (Jack from ‘The Night Before Christmas’).

Tess and Danny come to visit!

2007-11-20T17:25:00.000+09:00

It was good to have some more friends come and visit me from Australia. Just recently, Tessa and Danny came to visit me for a couple of weeks. We went to many cool places together and it was really nice to have them here so that I could show them how beautiful Japan really is!

Seppiko Death Hike!

2007-10-23T17:28:00.000+09:00

Climbing Seppiko was one of the things on my “have to do list” for a long time. Well, I finally did it! It would have to be the most difficult hike I have ever done by far – it was even more difficult than climbing Mt Fuji, so that is definitely saying something! At some stages, my legs were so tired that they felt like lead, but I soldiered on till the very end!

Thomas, Steve Harvey, Tina and I all set out at 7:40am to catch the bus on a Sunday morning on the way to Seppiko.

Now that for a start, was pretty impressive for a Sunday morning! When we got there, we were amazed by how tall the mountain actually was. It was HUGE! My adrenalin started kicking in at that stage as my heart pounded in excitement with the mere thought of what I was about to do! This photo shows how high the mountain actually was and we hiked all the way up to the very peak of the mountain that you can see behind us in the photo.

The first twenty minutes of the hike was the most difficult by far. It was so steep and each step was a huge effort. I felt like I was going to die! I was happy to have our first break and have a nice, cold drink of water!

Some of the sections we had to hike through required the use of ropes and chains to pull ourselves up the mountain.

To be honest, it wasn’t really that necessary to use these chains, but they were there for support for the people who needed them. We used them just for the sake of taking a good photo, but that’s just a secret between you and me!

There were also some really small, tight passage-ways that we were required to walk through. This was a tight squeeze, but we all managed to get through it. If I were another few kilos heavier, I’m sure it would have been almost impossible to get through! Thankfully, we all made it!

This was the very first mountain-top we reached. It was such a beautiful view from the top and it was nice to eat a few cakes and sweets after a tough climb to the top. We were all pretty excited that we made it that far!

After a little longer, on our way to the second peak, Thomas was in trouble. He was in need of a toilet which was absolutely non-existent on the mountain, so he had to resort to a squat! Thomas left his little present on the mountain and we continued on with our hike!

This is the second peak that we reached.

We felt pretty tough by that stage and really proud of ourselves. It was easy-street from there – or so we thought! Actually there was nothing about the entire hike that was easy!

After having our delicious bento lunch and a few more snacks, we trekked on to another part of the mountain which consisted of thousands of tall, thin, straight trees. They looked so cool!

As Thomas had already previously climbed Seppiko, he couldn't help but tell us stories that would worry us on the hike. The last time he climbed it, he and all his friends who went on the hike got leeches stuck to their feet. They all had bloody feet and had to take their shoes and socks off and wait for the leeches to fill up before falling off their bodies. After hearing this gruesome story, we all started to get a little worried when we were walking through the damp, swamp-like surroundings. Every two minutes I would check my shoes to make sure that there weren’t any leeches in them! Luckily we were all OK this time! Phew!

This is Tina and I at the waterfall. It was so beautiful to see such greenery and the water looked so clean and clear.

Five hours later, we finally reached the bottom of the mountain. I was relieved to see a seat so that I could rest my legs. We slept for one hour throughout the entire bus ride home!

I loved being in Seppiko and I would love to go back. It was the most challenging and exciting hike I have ever been on. I hope that I can fit in a few more hikes before I have to go back to Australia because I just LOVE hiking! Japan has so many mountains that the list of places to go hiking is endless. Maybe next weekend I will get to go on another one…fingers crossed!

Oshio Lion Dancing Matsuri

2007-10-17T21:33:00.000+09:00

The Oshio Lion Dancing Festival was on at the same time as the Nada Festival. We managed to be able to go to both of them luckily, as they are both quite near each other.

The Oshio Festival is all about the lion dancing. There are many lions dancing all at the same time with elementary school students playing music and setting the beat and the rhythm. It is such a great atmosphere. I really love the way the lions move during their dance. They look so cute and friendly and lively that while I was watching them, I forgot that there were people actually moving them inside. One person is at the front moving the lion’s head, while the other person is bent over at the back, being the lion’s body and two back legs.

While we were studying the lion mask, one of the Japanese men asked if we wanted to be kissed by the lion. Apparently, if you get kissed by a lion, it means you get good luck. So we all took turns in being kissed by the lion while the man was making funny noises in the meantime!

Then, I don’t know how I managed to do this, but I got to be right in the front of one of the lion shows.

I was so close, that I was scared of being hit by the lion’s head! I heard that it really hurts if you get hit by the lion, too! At the end of that performance, I got dragged into this massive group photo of all the performers and all the young students who were playing the music during the performance! Somehow, I felt like I was the token foreigner in the photo! It was fun, though!

I also saw some of my elementary school students because one of the schools I teach at is in the same district.

I was really excited to see them and they were all dressed up in their traditional costumes ready to perform in the festival. They looked so cute and they kept on saying how much they loved singing the “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” song the other day! These students were in sixth grade too, so I was pretty impressed that they liked it so much. Then I was testing them on all the body parts I taught them and they could remember all of them! I was so proud of them!

Just before we left the festival, we got to see Miss Himeji Castle.

She was so beautiful and was wearing a really nice outfit with her hair all perfect and make-up done nicely. We were lucky enough to get a photo with her too, so I felt really special!

It was a great weekend spending time at both of the festivals and I can’t wait till I get to go to another one!

Nada Kenka Matsuri

2007-10-17T21:20:00.001+09:00

The Nada Kenka Matsuri (Nada Fight Festival) is one I have been looking forward to all year. It is probably the most popular festival in Himeji and there are thousands upon thousands of people who attend. It is so popular because of the excitement value. It is very dangerous, risky, frightening, yet colourful and beautiful all at the same time.

The Nada Festival goes for two days.

On the first day, all the seven districts of Nada (each with their own local colours) carry the shrines for everyone to see and appreciate. These shrines are so heavy that they would weigh about a tonne, so there are around fifty men all helping to carry them. Even still, you can sometimes catch them shaking because it is so heavy.

The second day is when all the action happens! This is the day where they bring out the shrines that are not so delicate and beautiful-looking so that they can bang them together and fight with them. It is the most horrific-looking exercise seeing these shrines being banged together and falling and rolling into the crowd. There is no way that I would want to be stuck in the middle of all of that!

We were lucky enough to get seats from Tina’s teacher at work who has a friend that let us sit in special seats on the second level. We were safe from all the scary stuff that was going on down below, so we could freely take pictures and enjoy the festival from above. This is the man and his wife who let us sit with them during the festival.

They were also nice enough to buy us a bento lunch on the first day. It was delicious, but so filling that I couldn’t eat it all! Just looking at it now makes me hungry again!

At one stage, all the shrines moved to a different location by the mountain and we weren’t able to get seats. This was really unfortunate because we ended up at the bottom (like Gladiator) about to get crushed by all these huge heavy shrines and thousands of people! It was really scary being in there, but kind of exciting at the same time!

On our way to the next section of the festival, we passed some men who were wearing yellow bands around their heads called hachimaki. They were kind enough to give us the hachimaki to wear for the rest of the day, so that we looked like we were all getting in the action of it too!

Another part of the festival which is very unique is the costumes. The men wear a white g-string-type thing on the bottom that is called a mawashi. Many years ago, this was what the men used to wear as their everyday clothes. Now they only wear them during festivals…not that I’m complaining! Some of the men also wore a happi which is like an open vest.

They come in all different bright colours and it looks so colourful when they are all mixed in together wearing their outfits. We managed to get two really good pictures of the costumes for your viewing pleasure!

Festival Season

2007-10-17T21:19:00.001+09:00

Everybody in Japan knows that October is the season for festivals. This is the time where everybody prays for a good harvest for the year, which is the reason for most of the festivals being held in October. So that is why the next couple of entries are about festivals – which is one of my most favourite things in Japan. The best thing about the festivals in Japan is that they are all free. You can go and be entertained and enjoy the traditions and cultures without a door charge. It is all free entertainment – and something that we would most certainly never experience in Australia. Yep, you have to come all the way to Japan to see this! I hope I have tempted you now!

Lauren’s Birthday Bash

2007-10-17T21:13:00.000+09:00

Just recently, it was Lauren’s birthday, so there is no better way to celebrate a birthday in Japan other than to have a few drinks at home, then go out for the inevitable karaoke. We all had a fantastic time at Lauren’s party. There were lots of drinks to be drunk, lots of singing to be sung and lots of dancing to be performed. Once we hit the karaoke bar, we were all in for a give-it-your-best-shot night!

The best part of my night was the fact that I didn’t even have to ride to the karaoke bar. As we were one bike short, I got the privilege of being dinkied all the way to and from the karaoke bar. Shinya was kind enough to do all the work and ride us both there!

Out of all people, I am most certain that the birthday girl herself, Lauren, had the best time of all! She got right in the partying spirit and sang for most of the night. I’m sure she is still reminiscing about how much fun she had that night!

Karaoke…

…MORE karaoke…

…and MORE karaoke!

Tina, Steve, Lauren, me, Shinya and Taro all up for a good, fun night at the karaoke bar.

Amanohashidate

2007-10-11T20:56:00.000+09:00

Amanohashidate is a place in the country-side of Kyoto which contains one of the three most beautiful views in Japan.

This particular view is so unique because it is a strip of land in the middle of the ocean that looks like it is floating above the water, hence its name. Amano- meaning sky, hashi- meaning bridge and date- meaning floating.

When you look at it upside down (you have to bend over and put your head between your legs) you can actually see that it looks like it is floating above the water.

We went up the chair lifts to get a good view.

The chairlifts were a little scary and unsafe because it was just a small chair connected to a pole which was connected to a wire which pulled you up the mountain. The chair didn't have a chain to strap you in, so if you moved too much in the chair, you could easily fall out. It was very peaceful and relaxing though because everyone was quiet and there was classical music playing as you got pulled up the mountain on this chair.

There was also a really cool bridge that moves when ships go past it. It looked really nice and definately photo worthy!

I took some nice photos of Amanohashidate. The weather was perfect and the sky was blue, so I got some nice photos of the blue sky against the land and the water.

I even rode in the small kiddy ferris wheel because I wanted to get a better view. I was really glad I went on the ferris wheel!

I think Amanohashidate is a beautiful place and definitely worth visiting, considering it has one of the most beautiful views in Japan. It was so peaceful and enjoyable. There were so many people on the day we went because it was such a beautiful day.

Shiga Prefecture – Makino

2007-10-11T20:37:00.000+09:00

On the weekend, I went to Makino.

Makino is a town that is beside Lake Biwa (the largest lake in Japan). It is in the country-side and there are many hills and mountains in the town. I stayed in Satoshi’s holiday home and it was so cool! In the morning, we headed out to hike up the Mt Mikuni. The beginning was really steep and difficult, but once we past the hard bit, the rest wasn’t so bad. It was a beautiful day for hiking as there was a little bit of wind so we were able to keep cool.

On our way up the mountain, I was in the lead and all of a sudden, a really scary looking snake slithered past me. It had its head up and it looked like there was a spiky thing on it. It looked really angry that we had disturbed its slumber. Thank goodness it didn’t try to strike us, but instead, it hid in the bushes until we passed. As soon as everyone saw the snake, they all hid behind me! What was I going to do if it came towards me? Later I found out that the snake we saw was an extremely poisonous snake that can kill small children and elderly people. Pretty scary, huh? Thankfully we were ok!

We continued on our journey when we came to a bush that contained little red berries. I wanted to try one, but I wasn’t sure if they would be safe to eat. Yuki assured us all that they were ok to eat, so we all tasted one. They were really delicious!

The view from the top of the mountain was spectacular. I got a good view of Lake Biwa from the top and it was really beautiful. I am really glad I climbed that mountain.

On the way down, we took a different route.

It was so beautiful climbing down the mountain being amongst the greenery of the trees in the forest. I took so many photos because I loved being there. Hiking is so much fun because everywhere you go is different and unusual and beautiful. I love nature!

In Autumn, a plant that commonly grows in the mountains is called susuki.

It is furry up the top and feels nice to touch. There were so many susuki plants in the mountain that we climbed. They looked amazing!

This was my fifth hiking expedition in Japan so far.

My next hiking trip will be in Sepico. Apparently it is a little more challenging as in some parts you have to use a rope and chain to pull yourself up the mountain. It should be fun and I’m really looking forward to it!

Akashi

2007-10-11T18:45:00.000+09:00

Akashi is a small town in the Hyogo Prefecture, but it has a really beautiful castle and a nice garden surrounding the castle.

I walked through the Akashi Castle’s garden and it was really peaceful and relaxing. This was the lake that was near the castle.

There were also some cute turtles that I spotted swimming and talking to each other.

After walking around the castle, I went to the Planetarium where you can learn about the planets, the solar system and the universe.

In one of the rooms, it had pictures of al the star signs and they were so beautiful that I took a photo of my own star sign – virgo. I went inside a large, circular room and was able to see all the star formations in the sky and the sun slowly moving in the sky turning day into night. The chairs were really comfortable as they were reclining chairs and I felt so relaxed that I actually fell asleep! I wasn’t the only one though, there were about five men behind me all snoring their heads off while the school children were cracking up laughing at them!

I also tried Akashiyaki. This is like takoyaki (octopus balls), but it is specific to Akashi. I had a bad experience with takoyaki at the Osaka Castle once, so they didn’t quite taste as good as I thought they would, but I’m sure that I would have enjoyed eating them if I hadn’t had a bad experience in the past!

I’m glad I visited Akashi because it is the sort of town that could get forgotten as it is on the way to Kobe and Osaka by train. It is a beautiful town though and worth a look!

Kasai Flower Centre

2007-10-02T21:51:00.000+09:00

On Mum and Dad’s last day in Himeji, Makoto was nice enough to take the day off work to show them around. I also took the day off to go with them.

He took us to a place called the Kasai Flower Centre. It was similar to the Botanic Gardens, but the flowers that we saw were ones I have never seen before. It was a really cool place, and I wish we could have spent a little longer there because it was so nice.

It was pretty hot that day, so Makoto, Mum, Dad and I decided to sit down and have a rest and eat an icecream before continuing!

These are the best flowers in the entire garden. I love these flowers and I have never seen flowers like this before. They were so beautiful that they didn’t even look real!

This is Makoto and I being silly trying to see what we would look like with long, green hair!

Mum posing in front of the flowers.

Dad posing in front of the greenery.

Mum and Dad really enjoyed their last day in Himeji thanks to Makoto showing them around a beautiful garden. It was good to spend an extra week with them after their trip to Europe because we got to see some amazing photos and some funny stories about their travel experiences overseas. I am positive they enjoyed their time overseas both in Europe and in Japan.

Mt Shosha

2007-10-02T21:45:00.000+09:00

Tina and I decided to take Mum and Dad to Mt Shosha which is where the movie, ‘The Last Samurai’ with Tom Cruise was filmed.

We hiked up the mountain and had to dodge and weave past all these scary spiders which had formed monstrous webs! None of us were keen on walking through those spider webs. This is one of the thousands of spiders that lived on the mountain.

When we reached the top, Mum and Dad wanted to ring the bell just to say they did it and made it to the top (without walking through a spider web!).

These statues represent babies who have died. It is very sad, but it is a good monument to remember them by.

Mum, Dad, Tina and I on the stairs of one of the temples at the top of Mt Shosha.

Tina and I at the exact place where ‘The Last Samurai’ was filmed. It was exciting to be in the same place that Tom Cruise had once been to film a famous movie!

This is called a jikido. Many years ago, a jikido was a place where monks would live, eat, sleep and study. It looked like a very peaceful place to be.

Kobe with the Folks

2007-10-02T21:37:00.000+09:00

Mum and Dad had never been to Kobe before, so Shinya helped me to show them around the city. First we took them to Harbour Land. They enjoyed this as it had a great view of all the boats entering and departing the harbour.

We then went to China Town which was exciting for them to walk down as this was the first time they had been to a China Town in Japan. We ate a really nice sesame sweet and then we had a steamed bun which had meat and onion inside it. It was a cheap lunch, but probably close to being one of the most delicious lunches I have had!

After lunch, we went to Shinya’s mum’s coffee shop and had coffee and cake there. This is Mum, Dad and I with Shinya, Shinya’s Mum and Shinya’s sister.

We then met up with Lauren and her Mum, Jenny so that we could go to the top of Mt Rokko and see the best night view in the Kansai area. It was definitely the best because we were so high up the top of this mountain and we could see almost all the lights in Kobe and also in Osaka! It was amazing!

This is Kobe’s night view. Pretty spectacular, huh?

Lauren and I with both our parents.

Lauren’s Birthday

2007-10-02T21:33:00.000+09:00

It was Lauren’s birthday just recently, so for her birthday she decided to go to an Izakaya. Makoto was nice enough to book it for us and it was a really cool restaurant because it had a pirate ship theme. To enter the restaurant, you have to walk down a staircase and it looks like you are walking into a cave. Then each table is surrounded by wooden bars like a jail cell and it had the coolest atmosphere.

This is a group shot of all the people who came to Lauren’s birthday:

Jenny (Lauren’s mum), Dad, Mum, Kyosuke, Makoto, Steve, Tina, Lauren, me and Taube.

This is Steve, Tina, Lauren and I all excited, but feeling full because we had just eaten a huge feast!

When we came home, Laure's Mum had organised a surprise birthday cake for Lauren. What is a birthday, if you don’t get to blow out candles on a cake? So Lauren made her birthday wish and she hopes it comes true!

Moon Viewing Festival

2007-10-02T21:28:00.000+09:00

In Himeji, at the full moon, there was a Moon Viewing Festival.

It consisted of music and dancing and many talented musicians and performers put on an entertaining show for us to watch. I like the fact that most festivals in Japan are free and all you have to do is turn up and you get free entertainment based on traditional Japanese culture. They had koto players, taiko players (the taiko is a traditional Japanese drum), dancing, samarai performances, shamisen (Japanese guitars) and they were all dressed in traditional costumes too. My favourite part of the festival was when the skilled drummers came out to perform on the taiko. I was blown away by their energy and the rhythm of the drums. They were by far the most impressive to watch for me that night.

While watching the festivities, we had a really yummy picnic with lots of food that was bad for us! It tasted good though and that was the main thing. Lauren’s mum was visiting at the time so she made a nice pasta salad and the best curried eggs I had ever tasted! At least you can count on mum to provide some sort of nutrition!

Mum and Dad had also just come back from their trip to Europe so they got to sit and enjoy the festival too! This is a picture of Steve, Lauren, Lauren’s mum, Tina, Dad, Mum and me having a picnic and enjoying the festival.

Kanazawa

2007-10-02T21:14:00.000+09:00

During the weekend, I went to a place on the northern coast of Honshu called Kanazawa.

It was a really beautiful town and I am so glad I got to see it. I went to a place called the Kenrokuen Gardens. It is one of the most famous gardens in Japan and it was so beautiful. I love Japanese gardens – especially really large ones that have all sorts of different types of plants and flowers! It was so green and lush and it just looked like paradise. You can see in the photos how beautiful it actually is. Just looking at the photos now makes me want to jump into them and relive that moment right now because it was so peaceful and beautiful.

These are some poisonous mushrooms that we saw on the ground. I liked the colour of them so I wanted to take a photo.

While we were sitting down enjoying the scenery by the lake, some large trout came up to say hello.

They opened their huge mouths and were looking at us, wanting to give them some food. I wish I had some bread so that I could have seen them for a bit longer because they looked so funny with their mouths open!

Kanazawa also has some ruins of samarai houses.

We went into the restored houses to have a look at how the samarai used to live. The houses were beautiful and they had tatami mats in every single room. The garden in the backyard was so amazing to look at with a little pond and many green traditional Japanese plants and flowers. It was beautiful.

This is the tea room where they used to participate in tea ceremonies which is a traditional ceremony common for Japanese people.

The tea room door was so small that I had to duck to get into the room! The reason why it is so small is because you are supposed to kneel on your knees as you enter the door.

We weren’t supposed to crawl through this section because it is a window, but it was fun!

This is traditional Japanese calligraphy called syuji.

Many Japanese people are good at syuji as they have to study it throughout their schooling career. I want to learn how to do it too, but I think it takes a long time to get used to being graceful with the strokes of the brush. I have tried it a few times, but I definitely need more practise!

For dinner one night, we went to an izakaya which is a traditional Japanese pub. We all shared some sashimi and it tasted delicious, but my stomach wasn’t feeling too good that night so I couldn’t eat that much.

The next day we went to the markets.

These are some getta that were on sale. I love this photo. I love the way they display them lined up all in a row. They are the coolest looking shoes, but they are so uncomfortable to wear!

We also made our way to a foot onsen which is a foot spa.

It was free to enter so we had a dip in the water. The temperature of the water was so hot, and it was also a pretty hot day which made my entire body warm up in seconds! When I took my feet out they were bright red! It felt relaxing though and I think it would be good to use in winter when it gets really cold.

Just near the foot onsen was a small festival where many primary school-aged students were participating in a taiko (Japanese drums) competition. It was so amazing to watch because all of the students had so much talent.

Close to Kanazawa is a beach that you can drive on because the sand is so hard.

So Shinya’s friend took us for a drive along the beach. It was a little scary in the beginning because he was going really fast and the sand was really bumpy, but then he slowed down after that and it was fun to look out the window and take pictures of the scenery.

So that was Kanazawa! I would like to go back there if I ever get a chance!

Scary Haircut

2007-10-02T21:12:00.000+09:00

I got my haircut. I wanted a change so I thought I would do a drastic one and cut it really short and dye it brown. I’m not quite sure if I’m happy with it because I think it makes me look a bit feral, but there is nothing I can do about it now until it grows out. What do you think?

Just kidding! I didn’t really get my hair cut! It was a wig! It looks pretty real though, huh? I thought it was worth taking a photo just to see what I would look like with short, brown hair and now I know that I will NEVER get a haircut like that!!! Just as well it was only a wig!!! Hehe

Tokyo’s Night View

2007-10-02T21:11:00.000+09:00

At night time, we went to see the view of the Tokyo lights from the Government building. It is a really tall building and you can get a magnificent view of the city. That night, the moon was bright and it looked spectacular from where we were standing. It was like glitter in the sky!

Akiharbara

2007-10-02T21:08:00.000+09:00

I wanted to go to Akiharbara in Tokyo because I wanted to see the Japanese Anime and the maid cafes.

Japanese anime is all over Akiharbara and it is really interesting. I am so interested in it that I bought a book in the book store which teaches you how to draw anime. One day I will become really good…hopefully!

Tina, Lauren and I also wanted to experience going into a Maid Café. There are only waitresses in a Maid Café and all the waitresses are dressed up as maids. It is so interesting.

They look really cute, but it still feels a little strange to be served by a maid in a short frilly dress! The maid who served us was really nice to us and she even poured the milk in our coffee and stirred it for us! It cost 500 yen ($5) to sit down and then an extra 500 yen ($5) to have a coffee. Pretty expensive, but it was worth it just to experience what it was like. I think that Maid Cafes are supposed to be for men and I’m sure they would get more than just a drink at some of them if they wanted to!!! At the café we went to, women were allowed to enter, but in some Maid Cafés, only men are allowed in. It was definitely an interesting experience!

I Love Disney Sea!

2007-10-02T20:58:00.001+09:00

Tina, Steve, Lauren, Steve H and I all went to Tokyo Disney Sea together during our week away.

Tina was dying to go because she especially enjoyed Disneyland when we went last time, so this time she really wanted to experience Disney Sea. It was so cool and much better than Disneyland, I think. On our way to Disney Sea, we had to catch a monorail within the park to get there and this was the view we got from the window. These are all the people going into Disneyland. Disneyland was so much busier than Disney Sea that day, thank goodness, because we didn’t want to have to wait for three hours to go on one ride!

The cutest place in Disney Sea was The Little Mermaid section. There was a Little Mermaid palace and cute little rides for kids to go on, but of course, we went on them too! This is us in front of The Little Mermaid palace. Cute, huh?

Tina and I also got a photo with Pinocchio. He was so cute and he even held our hand!

Tina, Lauren and I got into the hair accessories for Disney Sea so that we looked the part.

We wanted to keep with the Disney theme, so Tina had cat’s ears (for Marie chan), Lauren had Minnie Mouse ears and I had a Minnie Mouse hat. I thought we looked really cool!

One of the coolest rides we went on was called the Tower of Terror.

On the ride, we had to sit in a seat and it took us up the haunted house to the very top like an elevator. Then it dropped all of a sudden really fast and it was an exciting feeling because we didn't expect it. I enjoyed that ride, so we went on it twice!

My favourite attraction at Disney Sea was the castle.

There were so many rooms you could go into and lots of windows you could look out of which had a great view of the park. It was almost like a maze and I felt like a little kid excitedly going from one room to the next in anticipation of what I was going to see next! It was so cool!

We also went on the carousel

(only because Tina insisted that she was going to go on it so we all thought we would go on it too!). It was a carousel based on the movie Aladin. I got to ride on a genie and I was really excited about that! It was fun! One of the workers on the ride would wave to me everytime I went past and it was fun because I felt like a little kid again!

Finally, the sun set and the fireworks began.

The night view of Disney Sea is spectacular because you can see the reflection of the buildings in the lake like a mirror. To top the night off, we all went for a ride in a gondola and it was so relaxing. I think the night time was the best time (and the most popular time) to go on the gondola because it is such a nice view.

I LOVE TOKYO DISNEY SEA!!!

Plastic Food Prices

2007-10-02T20:54:00.000+09:00

Almost every restaurant in Japan has plastic food in the shop windows.

I think it’s a really good idea because then you know exactly what you are gonna get and exactly what it looks like. It is also good for foreigners like me because if there is something I don’t understand, I can just point to the food that I want to order.

Anyway, we were shopping in Tokyo the other day and I saw some plastic food for sale. I couldn’t believe the price of each piece of food. One piece of sushi cost 1600 yen which is around $16 and a bowl of food cost around 9000 yen which is $90. It looked so real and so yummy, but it was so expensive! So restaurants must invest a lot of money to get their plastic food made to put on display in their windows. I just didn’t realise how much they actually spent!

Shibuya

2007-10-02T20:45:00.000+09:00

We made yet another trip to Tokyo the other week because we had a few public holidays in a row off work so we thought we would make use of the time and take the opportunity to go and visit Tokyo.

Shibuya would have to be the busiest place I have ever been to. The best view of the busiest intersection in the world would have to be in the Starbucks Café which overlooks the entire street. This café is so popular because everyone wants to look through the glass windows from above and do some people watching while they drink their coffee. Whoever thought of having a café there would be doing alright for business.

Tina, Lauren and I waited for about half an hour for a seat and it was worth the wait because we ended up getting a seat right by the window so we had the best view. These are some of the pictures of the view we got from Starbucks Café.

Later that night, we met up with Lexi (an ex-ALT who used to live in the same building as us who came from America). She now lives in Tokyo and she was gonna show us Shibuya's night life.

Well she took us to this club which had a mixture of trance music and R&B. It was a fun night, but the funniest part of the night was Lexi's friend who was so out-there. She was the type of person who would be perfect in the Big Brother house because she is so loud and confident and reminded me of someone like Paris Hilton. She kept me entertained all night! This is a photo of Lexi, Lauren, Tina and I all dolled up and ready to check out the nightlife of Shibuya!

Bowling Competition

2007-10-02T17:43:00.001+09:00

Makoto, one of our Japanese friends had organised for a whole bunch of us to go bowling one night. We had a bowling competition with around fifty people.

We were all put into teams of four and the highest scoring team was the winner and got a prize. Well if any of you have seen my bowling skills before, you would know that I wouldn’t be an asset to the team!!! My best score for the night was 49 which I was pretty proud of! The funniest thing was that the worst score for the night was worse than mine which made me feel a little better about being so bad at bowling! At least I am not alone! It was lots of fun though and this picture of the bowling group shows everyone making a little “g” with their hands which stands for “gutter” because that’s what most people got throughout the night – including me!!!

Tokyo’s crazy fashion

2007-10-02T17:23:00.000+09:00

There are so many people in Tokyo – more people than any other city in the world, in fact, so naturally, they are all different. They think differently, act differently and dress differently! These are some of the amazing and out-there fashions that you would only see in a place like Tokyo!

This shop is designed for people who enjoy dressing up in pretty dresses.

They look like porcelain dolls when you see them in the streets with their make-up and hair all done nicely.

An alternative bleach-blonde-haired guy hanging out on the steps in front of Shinjuku Station.

There are plenty of sexy outfits here to choose from – if that’s your thing!

Men in suits = hosts!

Even Disney Sea had many interesting fashions. We couldn’t believe how much people liked to dress up to go to a theme park. Some of their shoes would have been so uncomfortable to walk in all day…OUCH!!!

A cute little girl dressed as a fairy.

Not the sort of outfit I would choose to hang out in Disney Sea, but I think she pulls it off pretty well!

I love this playing cards dress!

I wanted to capture the essence of fashion in Tokyo, but there are so many different kinds of fashions that it would take months to get good photographs of all the different types of fashion. This is just a taste of what I saw. Nothing like what you would find in Australia, that's for sure!

Shirononishi Community Centre Party

2007-10-02T17:20:00.000+09:00

The ladies who run the Shirononishi Community Centre had organised a party for all the ALT’s who live in our building on the weekend.

It was so that the new American English teachers could get to meet different people in the community. The locals gave us yukatas to keep as a present. It was really cool of them to organise that for us. They also had a little magic show for us to watch too. It was lots of fun, but the part that made it the most fun was one of the ALT’s son’s was getting really excited about watching the show and he was so impressed by all the magic tricks! Everyone thought he was really cute!

Sports Day

2007-10-01T22:30:00.000+09:00

Sports Day is a big thing in Junior High Schools in Japan. Most schools tend to have their Sports Day on the same day which is on a weekend so that the students’ parents can attend. So I worked on Saturday (Sports Day rehearsal) and Sunday (the actual day).

I was so glad I got to see Sports Day in a different country to see how they hold their days. It is completely different to the Sports Days I remember having at school and the ones I organised as a teacher.

The ones in Australia are all about track’n’field events including high jump, long jump, shot put, javelin, sprints, relays, triple jump, etc.

In Japan, they have only running events and then the rest of the time they do a lot of marching, dancing and formal ceremonies. The day ran very smoothly and was very well organised and there were so many practises that the students knew exactly what to do and where to go for each event.

Once the day was over, I felt really tired and exhausted from being in the hot sun all day, taking lots of photos. It was worth it though to be able to experience a Japanese traditional Sports Day!

Sports Day is a big thing in Junior High Schools in Japan. Most schools tend to have their Sports Day on the same day which is on a weekend so that the students’ parents can attend. So I worked on Saturday (Sports Day rehearsal) and Sunday (the actual day).

I was so glad I got to see Sports Day in a different country to see how they hold their days. It is completely different to the Sports Days I remember having at school and the ones I organised as a teacher.

The ones in Australia are all about track’n’field events including high jump, long jump, shot put, javelin, sprints, relays, triple jump, etc. In Japan, they have only running events and then the rest of the time they do a lot of marching, dancing and formal ceremonies. The day ran very smoothly and was very well organised and there were so many practises that the students knew exactly what to do and where to go for each event.

Towards the end of the day, I got to participate in a relay. I had to crawl in a cardboard box that was hollow on either end. It was really tiring and it seemed like it was going on forever while I was in there, but I didn't really have that far to travel. It was really fun and I was glad that I got to be apart of it!

Once the day was over, I felt really tired and exhausted from being in the hot sun all day, taking lots of photos. It was worth it though to be able to experience a Japanese traditional Sports Day!

The Frog Prince Story

2007-09-18T23:52:00.000+09:00

Once upon a time, on a small island off of Japan’s coast called Shiraishi, there was a girl called Marie.

She was having the time of her life dancing the night away for her birthday that weekend with her friends. On her way home, her friend Kyosuke spotted a frog. He picked it up and Marie became very interested in the frog. In her tired and fatigued state, she thought to herself, “if I kiss this frog, it will turn into a prince”. So she kissed the frog and waited…and waited….and waited…, but there was no prince.

Kyosuke decided to put the frog on Marie’s head just to take a photo of her failed attempt at turning the frog into a prince, but instead, the frog did a big, huge wee all over Marie’s head and down her back. She wanted the frog to turn into a prince, and all she got in the end was a big, wet shower of frog’s wee! The moral of the story is, don’t tamper with nature or else it will get you back. Frogs DON’T turn into princes!

I think I will go down in the Guiness Book of Records as the first person who has ever been peed on by a frog! Lucky me! Let this be a lesson to be learned by all!

Shiraishi Island for the second time

2007-09-18T23:41:00.000+09:00

I went to Shiraishi Island on the weekend. As it is near my birthday, it was a good excuse to go away for the weekend and what better place to go than Shiraishi Island? I have been there once before as you would have read in my previous entries, but this time it was different, but just as beautiful!

I went with a big group of people including Tina, Lauren, Shinya, Taube, Makoto, Kyosuke, Maya and Hisashi.

We spent the weekend swimming on the beach, dancing to the music that the DJ was playing, throwing the frisbee, going hiking up the mountain, drinking cocktails on the beach and relaxing in the sun! Sound good? It was better than good!

Kyosuke brought a net with him to the island.

When I asked him why he brought this net, he replied, “it’s to catch things with.” I asked what kind of things and he said, “fish, crabs, jellyfish and girls!” That made me laugh so much so I got Lauren to come over and he caught Lauren with his net. Kyosuke was so proud and happy that he actually caught his first girl using his net!

While we were on the beach, I got Shinya to burry me in the sand, from my feet to the top of my neck!

I have never been buried in sand up to my neck before and it felt really weird and a bit gross because my skin had all grainy bits of sand all over it! It was fun at the time, but I don’t think I would like to do it again!

The villas we stayed in were International Villas and only foreigners are allowed to book them.

They can invite Japanese people to stay in them, but only foreigners are primarily allowed to book it. It is a good way to promote tourism and attract foreigners to remote areas of Japan and it is also a good way to enable me to go relaxing at the beach! These are what the villas looked like. We got the best view of the ocean from the deck.

This photo is of Maya relaxing in a hammock reading her book on the beach in the shade. I sat in this hammock too and it was so comfortable and relaxing.

These are the cocktails we drank on the beach. I drank a pina colada and it tasted so good! I felt like I was in paradise!

Tina and Lauren decided to lap it up and drink their cans of chu-hi in the water!

That night, we got ready to go to a beach party.

There was a DJ who was playing really cool music that we could dance to. Secretly, Tina and Makoto went up to the DJ and asked him if he could sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me. The DJ called my name out from the crowd and I went to the front and he sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and I felt really special! It was so cool and he had the most amazing voice when he sang.

This is Taube, Maya, me and Shinya dancing at the beach party.

Later that night, when we went back to the villa, we had our own little private party.

We put on the music and started to dance. Makoto was showing us his dancing moves that night and he had the funniest dancing style I have ever seen! It was so much fun and we all enjoyed ourselves that night. It was the best birthday weekend I have ever had!

Funny As

2007-09-18T23:38:00.000+09:00

After seeing the Koraukuen Gardens in Okayama, we were walking back to the hotel when we spotted the funniest sign ever.

There was a bookstore called, “Exciting Book Store” and then on the other side of the building, there was a funny picture of a boy smiling with a speech bubble coming out of his mouth saying, “I want to meet the person who created this store!” How funny is that? I wanted to go in the store just because of the sign!

There was also another restaurant nearby which was called “Pain Restaurant”. This made me laugh too!

Shinya, Lauren, Tina and I were walking back to the hotel and we were all feeling peckish so we went into this really cool restaurant near our hotel.

We saw the coolest thing there. It was called ‘french onion gratin soup’, but on the top of it was a layer of pastry which covered the bowl. It looked like a monstrosity, so just out of curiosity, Shinya and I ordered it! I’m so glad we did, coz it tasted absolutely delicious!

Korakuen Gardens Night View

2007-09-18T23:35:00.000+09:00

The Korakuen Gardens in Okayama are one of the most famous gardens in Japan. I have been there twice before, and this time it was my third time going there. In summer, the Korakuen Gardens are open at night time and many candles and lights are lit which makes everything look so beautiful and radiant. The illumination of the lights make the gardens look more beautiful than what they do during the day time!

These are just some of the photos that were taken that night of the beautiful gardens. I hope that from these photos you can see how beautiful the gardens actually look at night time.

The lake’s reflection.

Triangular lights.

The reflection of the house within the gardens.

Okayama Castle.

Kurashiki

2007-09-18T23:26:00.000+09:00

Kurashiki is a very old, historical town that has many beautiful and old buildings in it.

I went to Bikanchiku which is the historical part of the town. On the way to Bikanchiku, I spotted the most peculiar-looking building. It was so thin and skinny and strange, so I had to take a photo of it. What do you think?

Bikanchiku was really beautiful. We saw a canal which ran all the way through the area.

We also saw a souvenir shop which sold things from Australia!

It was so strange to see a shop which sold Australian goods! It definitely caught our attention.

There was a really cool, old-looking Japanese boat which was taking people for a ride down the canal.

It was really interesting to watch and it looked so nice floating down the canal.

When the owners of the boat were resting, Tina took this really cool photo of the men with their traditional hats sitting beside their boat.

This was one of the many beautiful buildings within Bikenchiku. I really like this one because I think lots of detail would have gone into its design.

This is Steve, Tina, me and Lauren sitting by the canal in Bikenchiku.

Snorkelling Trip

2007-09-18T23:20:00.000+09:00

One of the things I really wanted to do while I was in Okinawa was to see the tropical reef. The only way to do this is to do a snorkelling or a diving tour. Tina, Lauren and I decided to go on a snorkelling tour and I am so glad we did this because the reef was just beautiful! We were taken on a boat out to the reef and four instructors lead us to a coral reef full of many different types of colourful fish and coral. It was amazing because I had never seen anything like that and I considered myself as being very lucky to have been able to see something that looks so beautiful. I saw many different kinds of interesting fish happily swimming around, feeding off the coral below. It was so much fun!

On the boat before we set out, we all got some mugichya which is cold, iced tea made from wheat. It is really refreshing and delicious on a hot, summer’s day!

This was before we went snorkelling while the boat was taking us to the reef.

On the way to the reef, there were many people fishing near a lighthouse and I thought it made for a really nice photo!

This is Tina, Lauren and I in our wetsuits all ready to go!

Lauren and I using our floating devices to keep us alive! I got to use ebichan which means “Srimp Kid.” I loved that floatie and I wanted to keep it afterwards, but I had to give it back to the instructors sadly!

These are the four diving and snorkelling instructors who took us out on the boat. Lucky us!!!

At the end, we made sure we got a photo with them just to prove that we went there!

Taketomi Island

2007-09-18T23:06:00.000+09:00

During our stay in Okinawa, one of the islands we visited was called Taketomi Island.

This island has a really good swimming beach, so Tina, Lauren and I spent most of our time on this island swimming in the ocean.

This is me and Lauren feeling calm and happy on a beautiful beach in Okinawa.

This is me, Lauren and Tina getting ready for a swim.

The beach was so clean and inviting. I think this photo captures how beautiful and serene the atmosphere was that day. Everybody was so relaxed, enjoying the beautiful weather and beach.

We hired bikes on this island so that we could get around quicker and more easily, so after spending a long while swimming in the beach, we cycled on to the next beach which was famous for its star sand. This sand is amazing because almost every grain of sand is in the shape of a star. I have never seen anything like it before, but it is beautiful nevertheless. This is what the sand looked like:

These are some people who are searching for the star sand on the shore.

It is so pretty, unique and precious that everyone wants to see it and enjoy it.

We saw a star fish while we were walking through the water which looked quite interesting.

There were many of these blue, tropical fish swimming in the shallow water. They were such a nice colour that we couldn’t resist taking lots of photos of them!

We walked out to a small, rocky island-type thing and spent a while just sitting on the rocks and having a chat. The scenery looked so nice that I could have sat there for hours without getting bored, but I had to worry about getting burnt, too!

This is me, Tina and Lauren on the rocks at the star-sand beach.

Moving on from the star-sand beach, we then went to a small section of the beach which had a jetty you could walk out to.

There was a man playing the shimasen which is a traditional Okinawian snake-skin guitar and it sounded so beautiful and relaxing. I loved listening to the sound of the shimasen while enjoying the scenery.

These strange, black things are actually sea cucumbers. They were absolutely EVERYWHERE in the Taketomi beaches and you really had to look where you were going in case you stepped on one. Anyway, I sat there examining these two particular sea cucumbers for a while and realised that they were moving slightly and blowing bubbles through the water. They look so strange, and many Japanese people enjoy eating them, but I had no desire to try one at that stage! Maybe one day further down the track I will get a bit more game to try!

There were so many hibiscuses on Taketomi and they are such beautiful flowers so that decorated the island well and made it look really colourful.

Tropical Beach

2007-09-18T23:02:00.000+09:00

Tropical Beach is actually on Naha. It is such a cool beach. It took a long time to get there and the staff at the lobby of our hotel room spent about forty minutes explaining what we had to do to get there. We left early in the morning and ended up finding it eventually, so we spent most of the day enjoying the sun, sand and surf at Tropical Beach.

This photo is just to show you how blue the sea looks.

Tropical Beach from a distance.

I was so excited to be there!

The beach got busier as the day went on and there was lots of activity happening in the water and on the shore.

I like this photo because it shows how people are all doing their own thing at the beach from playing soccer, to swimming in the water, to relaxing on the shore.

Iriomote Island – it’s a jungle out there!

2007-09-13T21:38:00.000+09:00

I loved travelling to this island. All the smaller islands near Ishigaki are so easy to access due to the ferries which leave at regular times throughout the day. Iriomote was one of the islands that we visited.

As soon as we got to this island, we were taken on a cruise along the Irauchigawa Kankou River. This was really spectacular because we got to see these really cool trees with strange-looking roots growing from the ground.

This is a picture of the Irauchigawa Kannkou River from the cruise boat we went on.

The cruise boat took us to a jungle with thick, dense foliage.

It was so beautiful and green and pretty. I was so happy to walk through this jungle and enjoy the scenery. It was also really shady and cool because there were so many trees and plants to block the sun.

We saw lots of wildlife amidst the jungle. There are many little creatures and bugs and insects that live within the jungle. These are just some of the creatures we saw:

A cute little red crab

A centipede

A strange-looking lizard with a bright blue tail

There were also many strange-looking trees and plants growing in the jungle. This tree trunk hugely resembled a snake, so it was definitely worth taking a photo of because it looked so interesting.

Our aim whilst walking through the jungle, was to get to the end where there was a beautiful waterfall flowing through the jungle.

This is a small one that trickled down the rocks. It was so pretty and the water looked so clean.

This was the rocky river that we got to see during our travels on Iriomote Island.

There was also a good view of the river from the top of a bridge. This photo shows how truly beautiful this place really is. Jealous yet?

There was also a really beautiful beach that we stopped at before leaving the island. The water was so clean and blue and it was so picturesque. Even though it already looks so beautiful in the photo, it was even more beautiful in real life!

Ishigaki Island

2007-09-13T21:31:00.001+09:00

From Naha, we then went by plan to Ishigaki Island. It was a one hour flight and a very smooth one at that. It almost felt like we weren’t even flying but merely sitting inside a stationary plane the entire way! It was a very comfortable flight.

We also got to see the most spectacular view from the plane of the tropical reef in the ocean. It was just beautiful!

Just about every night, we ate a piece of steak.

It was so exciting to be able to eat good quality beef because I hadn’t eaten a nice piece of steak for so long! This was yet another meal that I ate which consisted of lots of meat! YUM!!!

We also ate a piece of chicken steak too, which was equally as delicious. Feast your eyes on this!

In the hotel we stayed at, there was a souvenir section and Lauren, Tina and I were really interested in the rare stones that were only found and produced in Okinawa.

There was a really special stone that was turquoise in colour that we all liked very much. We saw a cool pendant in the shape of a leaf which looked beautiful and it was so nice that we all wanted to buy it. Luckily, there were three more leaf pendants left so Tina, Lauren and I decided that we would all buy one! This is a photo of us with our leaves and the cute little lady who sold it to us. We made friends with her and thought she was so nice!

On our last day at Ishigaki, we went to Maesato Beach.

This was another beautiful, blue beach with crystal clear waters and nice white sand. It was also fenced off so that none of the scary deadly sea creatures could come and hurt us. I felt very safe and enjoyed swimming in this beach.

Okinawa…Japanese Hawaii

2007-09-13T21:11:00.000+09:00

Tina, Lauren and I have been looking forward to going on this trip to Okinawa since the beginning of the year! Okinawa is an island off of Japan which is famous for its beautiful blue, clean, crystal clear waters and tropical reefs. Of course, everybody in Japan wants to go to Okinawa and everyone who we have told about going there, has been so jealous of us! Maybe you will be too, after you have read about what we did!

There are many small islands off of the main island of Okinawa.

The main island is called Naha which was where we went first. Naha was a cool, big, happening place with many high-rise buildings, souvenir shops and people. As you can see in this photo, Naha has a beautiful night view.

We went to a beach on the first day, which was a little disappointing because it wasn’t what we had expected Okinawa to be.

Afterwards, we found out that this beach was a man-made beach and not known for being one of Okinawa’s most beautiful places. We still had fun there, nevertheless, enjoying the warm water and the hot sun.

We went for a walk down the main street in Naha which was very busy and highly populated. Souvenir shops covered both sides of the street as far as the eye could see and tourists swarmed from every direction. It was a very exciting atmosphere!

As we looked around, taking in the scenery, we spotted this strange alcoholic drink for sale.

The reason why it was so strange was because it had a really scary-looking snake inside the bottle with its mouth open showing its ferocious fangs.

You wouldn’t believe the price if I told you, so I took a photo of it just to make sure you knew I was telling the truth. It cost 68 000 Yen which is equivalent to $680!!! Can you believe it? Firstly, who would be game enough to buy a drink with a snake inside it, and secondly, who would be rich enough to be able to afford a 680 dollar drink??? It was definitely worth a photo!

This is another out-there photo to show how big some of the alcoholic beverages for sale actually were!

We were getting hungry by this stage so we decided to go and get something to eat.

Okinawa is famous for its steak and seafood restaurants because there is a marine base on the island, so many Americans like to eat at the steak restaurants. They are so delicious and I was so happy to be able to eat a descent piece of steak along with half a lobster mixed in with the most delicious sauce! We also tried traditional Okinawian alcohol which was just as delicious as the steak!

During our walk around the markets, we found some quaint fruit and veg shops. This is one of them with the little bananas hanging from the roof.

The markets also sell dried snakes to eat. To me, it didn’t really look that appetising, but I think it could be a delicacy in Okinawa. I wasn’t game enough to try it, though!

In the fancy rancy hotel we stayed in, we were able to get a yummy free cocktail in the bar on the top floor. We definitely made sure that we got this cocktail because we didn’t want to miss out on anything free as our trip was so expensive!

The fancy hotel also had a really nice pool, so Tina, Lauren and I spent most of the afternoon relaxing and swimming in the pool. One of the pools had a diving board so Tina and I were practising our diving skills with the board! It was lots of fun!

Yoyogi Koen

2007-09-13T20:32:00.001+09:00

Yoyogi Koen is the place to be on a summer’s day in Tokyo! There are so many people who go there and play all kinds of sports. From tap dancing, to BMX riding, to drums, to jogging, they do it all in Yoyogi Koen! It is really cool just to walk around and watch people doing their own thing. Many people will just go there by themselves to practise their specialty. Some will go with their friends for company. It is so cool that there is a common area for people to go and do whatever they want to do.

This is a boy practising his tap dancing. It was so hot on this day, so the park wasn’t as busy as it usually is, but there were still a few people out and about.

This guy was so good on the BMX. He was doing all sorts of fancy tricks like riding backwards and doing spins and jumps.

These men were playing the drums. We sat in this spot for a while under the shade enjoying the sound of the drum beat.

There were also some Japanese Elvis impersonators who joined the scene. They had really nice cars and gelled their hair just the way Elvis used to!

In between the Harajuku shopping area and Yoyogi Koen, many young, teenage kids hang around and dress in the most amazing costumes.

It would take so much effort to dress the way they do everyday, but they look so good in what they wear! I don’t think I could ever get away with wearing the clothes they wear, but they look great!

We asked these three girls if we could take a photo of them. I think they were a little embarrassed, but they posed for us anyway.

We thought this boy looked really cool.

He was talking to his friend on his mobile phone, but when he saw that we wanted to take a photo of him, he did a little pose for us while still talking to his friend! It was really funny!

Just around the corner, there was an artist selling paintings of sakura. I liked them so much that I decided to buy one. It was only 1000yen which is around ten Australian dollars. I thought this was a great price! This is me with the artist and my new sakura painting!

Just near Yoyogi Koen is a place called the Meiji Temple. It is really famous and really old. I love looking at different types of temples. This one was really interesting because it was so big and prominent.

There was also a large area where people could write what they wish for and hang it on display.

This is at almost every temple you go to. I love reading what people have written because it is usually something nice they wish for about their families or their children. Obviously, most of them are in Japanese, but there are some that are in English also.

A Wild Night in Tokyo

2007-09-13T20:25:00.000+09:00

It was a Saturday night in Tokyo, so what else is there to do but check out the night life? Actually, to tell you the truth, I was a bit buggered and couldn’t really be bothered having a massive night going out and I was almost gonna say to Tina and Lauren to go without me, but I didn’t want to miss out on all the action, so I just grinned and beared it!

In Japan, it is fashionable to wear sunglasses at night time when you are going clubbing.

So Lauren, Tina and I decided to imitate this fashion within the walls of our hotel room! We only wore them in the hotel room, but it felt weird to wear them around outside at night time, so I decided to leave them in the hotel!

I love the way that Japanese people dress.

They have such a different fashion sense compared to Australians, but it is so interesting. While we were walking to the clubbing area, Tina’s goal was to try and take as many photos of different types of Japanese fashion as she could. This is one of the photos she took. Usually, when you ask young people if you can take a photo of them, they get really excited and fully pose for the photo which is really funny!

We went to a night club in Shinjuku which is a really lively area in Tokyo. There were so many people roaming the streets looking like they had had one too many drinks! We got a couple of African guys to lead us into a night club that played hip hop music. It turned out that they lead us to this place that Tina and I had been to once before! It was really quiet to begin with, and then more people started turning up as the night got later. We danced all night and it was so much fun!

We met a group of Japanese girls in the night club.

They were so friendly and we ended up dancing for most of the night with them. One of the girls we met had a birthday that night so we celebrated with her. There was a Japanese man who had two gorgeous-looking Japanese women with him who kept on buying us Tequila Slammers all night and he also bought us a glass of champagne each to celebrate the gril’s birthday.

So we didn’t know anyone in the club at the beginning of the night, but by the end of the night, we knew pretty much everyone there! We made lots of friends that night and ended up getting home at around 5am!

Lauren also met a nice Japanese boy that night who she spent the rest of the time dancing and talking to.

We were all so happy for them and kept on making a big deal that they had met! I think she was a little embarrassed, but she enjoyed herself...we all did!

Terrific Times in Tokyo

2007-09-11T17:25:00.000+09:00

After visiting Nikko and having a blast, we moved on to Tokyo where much fun was to be had!

We started off visiting Odaiba and we got there by monorail. We were lucky enough to get front seats so we had the best view of the monorail track. It was really cool!

When we arrived at Odaiba, we saw the coolest building called Fuji TV. It was definitely worth taking a photo of!

Within this area, we also saw something that looked totally out of place in Japan. We saw a replica of the Statue of Liberty! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it, but it was definately there! I have proof!

It was amazing how many dogs were around this area!

They were all spoilt to the max with their owners taking them to special dog beauticians to look all pretty before taking dog photos (like pixi photos but with dogs!). It was so funny! Then even had a little restaurant that sold food for dogs. I couldn’t believe it! It was the funniest sight! We also saw many dogs being pushed along by their masters in prams. This one lady had four dogs in her pram all dressed up prissy-looking. One of the dogs got so excited to see us that it jumped out of the pram and came up to us. The lady gave the dog to Lauren to hold while we took a photo of her. The other three dogs in the pram were all posing for the photo too! It was so funny, but very cute!

We then made our way to Venus Fort.

This is a cool shopping centre with a roof that looks like the sky. It was so well painted that it actually looked real. It was heaps cool because as the day got on, the blue sky started turning into a sunset colour. It was awesome! I bought some new sunnies and bathers for when I go to Okinawa!

Inside the shopping complex, there was a place called Mega Web.

This contained hundreds of different types of classic, expensive cars on display. There was also a section where we could go for a ride in a car along a course and you didn’t have to steer the wheel. It was all controlled for us! Lauren and I enjoyed our little ride in the cute car while we waved to all the people in the shopping centre as we went past them. It was so funny! They all thought we were a bit loony, but I didn't care because I was having fun!

Check out some of the cool cars that I got to see in this place…

The delorian from Back to the Future.

This cute small car that fits two people in it

The cutest car in the world that is so tiny that I am heaps bigger than it!

Nikko in a Nutshell

2007-08-21T17:33:00.000+09:00

Tina, Lauren, Steve and I all went on a special trip to Nikko. It is a really famous sight-seeing place in Japan because it has beautiful temples and shrines dating back to the samurai days which look pretty amazing and they are also world heritage listed which makes them even more special.

When we first arrived at the hotel in Nikko, we were impressed with the beautiful surroundings as we saw the Daiya River passing through the dense trees on either side.

We went down to have a look and noticed straight away the difference in temperature. It was so much cooler by the river and when we dipped our feet in, we realised why! The water was icy cold – probably as cold as it would be in Antarctica (well maybe not that cold, but it was still pretty cold!). We could only dip our feet in for about ten seconds at a time because it was so cold – even on a hot, summer’s day! The water comes all the way from the top of the mountain where it would be pretty cold which is why, understandably, it is so cold!

This is the Daiya River and you can see how beautiful it is with all the pretty flowers growing beside it.

We went for a walk down the street and noticed many dragonflies happily fluttering around the area.

There were so many of them and they would often stop and rest on someone’s shoulder before taking off again. Lauren and I saw one that was eating a fly. Check out this awesome photo! It was so cool and interesting to watch it eating another insect. I wouldn't choose to eat a fly, but this little dragonfly was having a feast!

The Shinkyo Sacred Bridge is another famous attraction in Nikko. It looks so cool with the strong current of the river flowing below it. We took many cool photos of this bridge.

We then went for a walk around the temples and shrines. The first temple we went to looked so impressive because of all the detail and care that went into the architecture of the building. This is the first temple we visited.

This is the ceiling of the temple as we walked through the gate. Every ceiling we saw contained elaborate detail and colour. This was one of many.

This was the sacred fence that surrounded the temple. Take note of the detail in the construction.

At every temple, there was a little rock turtle sitting on a cement block. I took a photo of one because it looked so cute!

There was also a five-story pagoda in the National Park. I love five-story pagodas as there are very few in Japan, so they are considered very special.

One of the major attractions in Nikko are the monkeys: Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil. Here, you can see a picture of the shrine that contained the three monkeys.

Tina, Lauren and I wanted to be like the monkeys too, so we joined in on the act!

At the Toshyogu Temple, I took a photo of the walls encompassing the temple which contained peacocks on the outer edges. This is a close-up picture of the artwork.

This is the Toshyogu Temple gate.

After visiting the temples, we made our way by bus up a windy mountain to the famous Kegon Falls. It was beautiful. We got to go in an elevator 100metres below the ground to see the fierce waterfall meeting the pool below. It was spectacular!

Not far from the waterfall, was a beautiful lake called the Chuzenji Lake. It was so nice to get a good look-out of the lake and the mountains. I really want to come back to Nikko in Winter because everything is covered in snow and it looks really pretty.

While we were looking for something to eat, we spotted a sign that contained a really good message on it. It was called “The Four Way Test”. I think it is very wise and can help you make good decisions in your life, which is why I decided to take a photo of it. So if you have to make an important decision, read this sign and you will be able to make the right one!!!

For dinner, Lauren, Tina and I decided to eat at a small Korean-style restaurant. It was delicious and the service was great! I ate yaki tori (chicken skewers) and they tasted delicious!

I would definitely come back to visit Nikko again. There are apparently really nice hiking trails on the mountain surrounding the town which I would love to do. It is such a beautiful spot containing so much natural beauty. I really enjoyed my time in Nikko!

Satani Sensei and family

2007-08-17T22:18:00.001+09:00

One of my favourite teachers from Nada Junior High School invited me to go on a tour of Kakogawa and Takasago. He picked me up and showed me how to get to my new school, Hanada Junior High School. Then we went out for lunch to eat Izushi Soba. Izushi soba is a popular dish amongst Japanese people to eat in the summer time because the noodles are cold and it tastes refreshing. I had some with eel in it and it was delicious! After lunch, he took me with his children to see some historical sites in Kakogawa. I saw the oldest building in the Hyogo Prefecture!

This is a photo of me with his children at the historical site in Kakogawa.

This is one of the old buildings in Kakogawa - a three-story pegoda.

We went into a museum and saw some ancient Japanese artefacts. It was very interesting.

We then moved on to Takasago city where we saw this amazing looking rock which was about as big as your lounge room and it looked like it was floating in the air! It was really cool. Then we climbed up this mountain and got a beautiful lookout of Kobe, Kakogawa and the ocean. It was amazing!

This is a photo of me with Satani Sensei and his children at the beautiful lookout of Kakogawa and Takasago city.

During our sight-seeing expedition, we spotted a huge Japanese fly which Satani Sensei's daughter caught and held up for me to take a photo of it. It is pretty amazing how big they actually are and they make so much noise!

Satani Sensei then took me to his house where I met his wife. She was really friendly. His daughter and son taught me how to do syoji (Japanese calligraphy) and I was pretty bad at it, but it was fun. Then Satani Sensei taught me how to do it because he is really good at it and he was showing me how to do the brush strokes. It was heaps of fun!

His son drew a funny picture of a one-eyed monster and his daughter was practising her syoji summer holiday homework. This is his daughter's shuji work which is pretty good for a sixth grade student!

This is Satani Sensei's son's picture of the one-eyed monster!

We then ate tea which consisted of sashimi, rice, tempura and okonomiyaki. It was all delicious!

After tea, his son sang me a Japanese song on his guitar. He was such a good singer and I was so impressed with his singing ability. I wanted him to sing another song for me, but he was too embarrassed! I enjoyed his singing very much!

It was really cool to be able to spend the day with one of my favourite teachers from Nada Junior High School. He is really friendly and his whole family are really nice and welcoming.

My Biggest Accomplishment in Japan: Climbing Mt Fuji

2007-08-17T21:46:00.000+09:00

Climbing to the very top of Mount Fuji was one of the things that I have always wanted to do ever since I came to Japan and guess what? I DID IT!!!! Cool, huh?

Tina and I got our Japanese friends to help us book the tour and we went with forty other Japanese people to climb this massive mountain.

We left at 7:30pm on Friday night from Himeji and went to Mt Fuji by bus. It took the entire night to get there and we arrived at Mt Fuji at around 5am the next morning. It was so uncomfortable sleeping on the bus overnight, so we didn’t really get much sleep, but I was so excited about being able to climb the mountain, that I didn’t care about my lack of sleep!

Anyway, we went to this beautiful shrine amongst a forest just before we climbed the mountain to pray for our safety. Then we headed up the mountain at around 11:30am.

It was really, REALLY hot from the fifth station and we were sweating like anything. The view was amazing though because there were not many clouds that day and we got a clear view of the city below us. This is Tina and I looking all keen and energised before our big hike up the mountain.

We met a nice couple who we befriended on the bus before the climb and they became our helpers any time we needed to understand what was going on. The man's name was Atsushi and the lady's name was Mako. They were really friendly and helpful to us the entire time.

This is what Mount Fuji looks like from the fifth station. Pretty amazing, huh?

This is the beautiful view from the seventh station.

We climbed all day until around 5pm when we reached the eighth station. It was such a steep climb in some parts. This is a good photo to show you how steep it actually was.

At the eighth station, we stayed in this small hut where we all slept lined up in sleeping bags – men and women all in together! It was so bizarre and surreal, but a great experience all the same. This is what all the rows of sleeping bags looked like in our little hut.

We had a nice filling tea consisting of rice, meatballs, fish, curry and something sweet. Most of the people at our table couldn’t eat their meals, so they gave their food to us so we could polish it off for them!

We slept until around 10pm and then we had to get up and start hiking again so that we could reach the top of the mountain by sunrise.

All through the night, we hiked up the mountain. By this stage, it was getting really cold and Tina and I felt like our hands were about to drop off because they were so cold! Our tour guide told Tina and I to cuddle each other, so we were hugging each other and climbing the mountain the entire time! We had a bit of a giggle because Tina’s hands were freezing so we climbed the mountain with her hand in my pocket throughout the entire night! If she was a guy, we probably would have looked like a couple!hehe

Anyway, as we were about 100 metres from the top, we could see the sun starting to edge through the clouds and push its way above the mountain. We were getting anxious and worried that we might miss the sunrise, so our tour guide started speeding up the process.

It was a bit hard though, because there were literally thousands upon thousands of people all climbing this mountain at the same time. I couldn’t believe how many people there were. It was like the entire population of Japan woke up and decided to climb Mt Fuji on the same night!

So we weaved through all these people and finally reached the top of the mountain at around 4:30am. The sun still hadn’t risen by this stage, so we were safe! There were so many people at the top of the mountain eagerly anticipating the sunrise with their cameras ready to go.

When the sun came up, they raised the Japanese flag and sang this beautiful song. It was magic! Tina and I went crazy taking thousands of photos of the beautiful sunrise.

It was positively the BEST view I have ever seen in my whole entire life! I felt so privileged to be able to see it with my own eyes! No words can describe the beauty of it. It was just heavenly. If I could imagine what heaven would look like, it would be what I saw that morning on the top of Mt Fuji!

After admiring the sunrise and taking numerous photos of it to try and capture its beauty, Tina and I got a bit carried away and lost the rest of the group. I was stressing because I was worried that they would leave without us so I was frantically rushing around trying to spot someone who looked familiar. In the meantime, Tina was casually walking around behind me, not really caring what was going on!

Eventually, we found the group and started making our way back down the mountain. It was really tricky because it was so steep and there were many loose rocks that made it really easy to slip and fall. There was also so much dust that made it really difficult to breath in fresh air and it all stuck to my face and made me look black!

We finally made it down and I felt really proud that I had achieved the difficult task of climbing Mt Fuji. It was liberating!

We felt so dirty and disgusting and the next step of the way was to clean and scrub our bodies thoroughly in the onsen (hot springs or public bath). Tina was so embarrassed because she didn't want all the women on the tour to see her naked, but I didn’t care! I was just glad that I could feel clean once again!

So that was that! A great challenge, a great achievement, a great memory! やった！！！

My favourite place in Japan – Mitaki-ji

2007-08-14T22:14:00.001+09:00

I know I have said many places have been my favourite, but Mitaki-ji is so beautiful and green and lush. It is about a thirty minute bus ride away from the city centre of Hiroshima up in the hills. There is so much greenery as the forest is quite dense and it is even more beautiful to see the waterfall cascading down the mountain amongst the density of the forest.

There are also many statues of Gods and small shrines hidden in the mountain. We really enjoyed climbing the mountain and taking so many nice photos of the area.

The scariest part was when I was walking up some stairs, and I got to a dead end. I was about to turn around and go back the way I had come, when I saw this snake all coiled up with its head up staring at me. I froze dead on the spot because I was so frightened. I knew I had to get away, but my legs wouldn’t move. I eventually forced myself to walk past the snake and thankfully, it didn’t try to strike me.

As Mum and I were heading back to find the others, we were walking back down the stairs and I saw another snake slither in front of me and go into the bushes on the side of the track. This was really scary and by this stage, I had had enough and I wanted to get out!

There were so many scary insects, bugs, snakes and spiders around that area. This is a really good photo of the spider’s web. There were so many of these, so you really had to look where you were going!

Aside from the scary wildlife, Mitaki-ji is amazing and definitely worth a look. I would like to go back there again someday…

Hiroshima Peace Ceremony

2007-08-14T22:01:00.000+09:00

On August 6th at exactly 8:15am, the Hiroshima Peace Ceremony began with a ding of the peace bell and a minute of silence to think about the people who died from the a-bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima 62 years ago. It was a very emotional ceremony, but great to experience. I feel privileged that I got to see such a special ceremony take place in Hiroshima. Just before the ceremony, we got to make paper cranes to donate as a symbol of peace. We had no idea how to make them, even with the step-by-step instructions because paper cranes are so complicated to make. We asked a Japanese man in front of us if he could help us make it and he was so patient with us and showed us each step so that we could get it right. I love the mentality of the Japanese people. Anytime they can help you, they will.

This is the finished product of the paper crane that I made.

During the ceremony, they had many special people come up and make speeches. The one I was most impressed with was when two sixth grade students came up on stage in front of thousands of people and talked about how the a-bomb tragedy has affected the nation, and how they have risen above it and have become stronger as a result. It made me cry.

It was good to see the Secretary General of the United Nations get up and make a speech about peace, too.

After the ceremony, many people lined in front of the dome to say their silent prayers of peace. I love this photo I took of the school boys all lined up paying their respects with one of the boys going ahead to place a flower beside the dome.

There were also an array of daisies displayed around the dome which looked really nice. I took a close-up shot of this because I really liked the look of them.

At night time, we came back to the Peace Park by the river and watched thousands of people put lanterns in the river.

As dawn turned to dusk, you could see the candles inside the lanterns light up and it looked so peaceful and calming watching thousands of lanterns float down the river.

It was unlike anything I have ever seen before and I loved seeing this unique ritual with my own eyes. We took sooo many photos of these lanterns that it was really hard for me to decide which ones I was going to put on my blog!

Miyajima

2007-08-14T21:52:00.000+09:00

Out of all the places in Japan that I have been to so far, Miyajima has to be up there as one of my favourites. I know I probably say this about almost every place, but I really enjoy going to Miyajima because there is so much to see and do there. From feeding deer, to hiking up a mountain, to sight-seeing, to looking at shrines and temples – there are endless opportunities to experience the Japanese culture for what it is.

When we first arrived on the island, I was getting so excited about seeing all these cute deer, that I wanted to feed them. As soon as I got the deer food, they all came rushing towards me and I felt like they were about to bowl me over! I wanted to tell them that I wasn’t a bowling pin, but I don't think they would have understood me! I was getting a little scared by this stage because the deer started jumping up on me and getting really excited, so I quickly got rid of the food and got away from them as fast as I could!

Miyajima’s famous torii is probably one of the greatest spots to take pictures. Of course, our family decided to take a nice family shot in front of the beautiful, sacred torii.

For lunch, I ate my most favourite food in Miyajima: barbequed oysters. They are sooo delicious – especially when you squeeze lemon on them and they are so fresh and hot as they cook them on the BBQ and then put them straight on your plate. I loved every bite of those oysters. That was just entrée though. After that, I ate some more oysters in a restaurant nearby. This is a picture of Shinya (my Japanese friend) and I eating oysters in the restaurant. Note the absolute perfection of my chopstick skills! Two seconds later, I probably dropped the oyster into my drink, but that doesn’t have to be mentioned!!

After lunch, Shinya, Mum, Dad and I decided to climb Mt Misen while Tina, Lauren and Steve did some sight-seeing elsewhere.

It was soooo hot that day and very humid so it made the hike even more difficult because we were sweating so much, but it didn’t detract from the beauty of it all. The hiking trail followed a waterfall stream all the way up the mountain. It was absolutely picturesque.

I loved climbing the mountain and seeing nature at its best – being amongst all the trees and natural surroundings. It was great! It was even better when we reached the top and got to see the look-out from the peak of the mountain.

In the evening, just before it was time to go, we took our last few photos of the torii at sunset. This is probably my most favourite picture taken that day of the torii at sunset.

Funny Saturday Night

2007-08-14T21:47:00.000+09:00

Tina, Lauren and I decided to hit the town in Hiroshima on Saturday night and check out the night life. Well after about an hour of walking around not knowing where to go, we stumbled across a group of friendly strangers who suggested we go to Barcos. With a little hesitation, we entered the club and we liked it so much that we decided to stay there for the night because they played really good dancing music. Despite the fact that there was a sign on the dance floor saying “No dancing please”! Who knows what that was all about, but we ignored the sign and broke the rules!hehe

It is funny going out in Japan because there are so many people who wear their sunglasses in the nightclubs. This never happens in Australia, so it came as a bit of a shock to us when we first saw it here. Even still, I thought I would join in the action so I got a pair of sunnies off of the nearest person and posed for the camera, just to show that I was joining in the act!!!

For the rest of the night, Tina, Lauren and I danced on the dance floor. It was quite funny watching Tina’s strange dancing style. She got excited when she spotted a pole on the stage, so she thought she might have a go at pole dancing. She got a few looks, but only did it for a split second, so it was just as well I had my camera out for evidence!

Lauren’s dancing style was also one to be amused by. This is her favourite dance move that she does without fail at every dance club – or even if she is walking down the street!!

All in all, it was a great night. We met some pretty funny characters along the way, too. We met some African American guys who had the best accents – just like you would hear out of an American movie! I have never heard it in real life before though until now. We also met some funny Japanese guys who had decided to go out after work. They seemed a little worse for wear, so it was funny just to have a laugh with them. By that stage, we were so tired that we had to go home as we were going to have a big day the next day in Miyajima.

Hiroshima Peace Park

2007-08-14T21:42:00.000+09:00

Tina, Steve, Lauren and I decided to take Mum and Dad to Hiroshima. One of the reasons was because we wanted to attend the Hiroshima Peace Ceremony regarding the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima 62 years ago.

When we arrived in Hiroshima, the first thing we did was looked at the Peace Park. It was so nice just to walk around and look at the different monuments and read the plaques that explained what happened during the war.

It was even more special because it looked different this time around because they were preparing for the Peace Ceremony. So there were so many flowers displayed around the peace dome which looked really beautiful.

There were a lot of things happening at the Peace Park the day before the ceremony so we spent time enjoying all the festivities. There was a young orchestra of students who were between ten and twelve years old. They played beautiful music and were obviously very talented. We sat and listened to them play for a while and I took a few photos of the atomic-bomb dome across the river. It looked really nice because you could see its reflection in the river, like a mirror.

Later on that night, when the orchestra had finished, we were about to go home when two young girls were looking at something on the ground.

I was curious to see what they were looking at so I went and had a look. Funnily enough, there was this random crab in the middle of the peace park happily walking along the path! I had to take a photo of it because it looked so cute and it was so out of the ordinary!

marieinjapan

2007…“Those Were The Best Days Of My Life!”

The Last Supper

The Heaps Good Showcase

Sapporo Beer Museum

Ski Trip

Sapporo

Mt Hiromine Hike

Sega World

Farewell Party…Goodbye us ☹

Luminarie

My Last Day at the Elementary School

My Last Day at the Junior High School ☹

Enya-Kyo

Tsumago

Magome

Nagashima Spaland

Nagoya

On the way to school

Last Day at Shirahama

Nabe at Makoto’s

Golden Himeji Castle

Yoyogi Koen

Koda Kumi Concert

Last Day at Itohiki

Kyoto – Momiji Viewing

Final Aerobics Showcase

Happy Birthday Shinya!

Okayama Countryside

The Sand Dunes of Tottori

Okayama Bike Hike

Thanks Giving Dinner

日本語 (Nihongo)

Himeji Castle in Autumn

Himeji Gardens

Tina’s Hawaiian Birthday Party

Silly me take two

Silly me

Radio Stars

紅葉 （もみじ Momiji)

Kyoto – Hozugawa River Rafting Experience

Japanese Wedding

Nara with Tess, Danny, Lauren and her family

Osaka with Tessa and Danny

Kobe with Tess and Danny

Halloween

Tess and Danny come to visit!

Seppiko Death Hike!

Oshio Lion Dancing Matsuri

Nada Kenka Matsuri

Festival Season

Lauren’s Birthday Bash

Amanohashidate

Shiga Prefecture – Makino

Akashi

Kasai Flower Centre

Mt Shosha

Kobe with the Folks

Lauren’s Birthday

Moon Viewing Festival

Kanazawa

Scary Haircut

Tokyo’s Night View

Akiharbara

I Love Disney Sea!

Plastic Food Prices

Shibuya

Bowling Competition

Tokyo’s crazy fashion

Shirononishi Community Centre Party

Sports Day

The Frog Prince Story

Shiraishi Island for the second time

Funny As

Korakuen Gardens Night View

Kurashiki

Snorkelling Trip

Taketomi Island

Tropical Beach

Iriomote Island – it’s a jungle out there!

日本語　(Nihongo)

紅葉　（もみじ　Momiji)